A federal judge is instructing Trump Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino about how to deploy the tactics she thinks should be used by federal officers in pursuit of President Trump’s immigration policies.
The judge questioned Bovino on the tactics now being used in Chicago by ICE and other federal officers in pursuit of President Trump’s immigration policies.
Judge Sara L. Ellis of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had Bovino in her court over allegations that ICE and Border Patrol are using unnecessary force in confrontations with increasingly threatening and violent protesters, including routine use of tear gas and other noxious gases to subdue crowds and keep federal law enforcement officers safe.
Ellis particularly pointed to the use of gas in an altercation that was near an area where costumed kids were staging for a Halloween parade, the New York Times reported.
“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” Ellis said to Bovino in connection with the incident. “They just don’t. And you can’t use riot control weapons against them.”
Bovino, dressed in his Border Patrol uniform, promised to have officers adopt body cameras in Chicago and also said he, himself, would wear one going forward.
Ellis also warned Bovino that agents must warn crowds that they intend to use gas.
“The warning has to be, ‘I’m going to deploy tear gas,’” the judge said. “The warning really has to be, include what it is that you’re doing to do before you do it, and allow people time to comply.”
Ellis was reacting to a lawsuit brought by several activist reporters who are suing the federal government, alleging “a pattern of extreme brutality” and injuries they claim they suffered at the hands of ICE agents.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has defended the use of gas canisters and said they are only used when agents are “swarmed by agitators.”
“The agitators obstructed federal law enforcement and ignored multiple warnings to disperse and continued to impede operations, including trying to deflate a vehicle’s tire,” the DHS statement said. “Agents deployed crowd control measures to disperse the crowd and agitators began throwing objects at them.”
In an incident from last week, a mob of violent protesters attacked a contingent of ICE officers, boxed their vehicles in with a truck, threw rocks, and launched heavy fireworks at the federal officers.
Bovino’s office reported that almost 3,000 criminal illegal aliens have been arrested and taken off the streets of Chicago.
According to reporter Jon Seidel, Judge Ellis ordered Bovino “to appear at the federal courthouse at the end of every weekday” until a November 5 hearing to report to her any use of force his agents have taken each day and to make sure his officers are obeying her temporary restraining order, which prohibits the use of tear gas.
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