A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet her daily "to hear about how the day went" after weeks of confrontations between immigration agents and the public in the Chicago area during a weekslong enforcement campaign.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis also told Greg Bovino to produce all use-of-force reports from agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz since Sept. 2.
Ellis had expressed concerns over video and other images from street confrontations between agents and protesters during Operation Midway Blitz, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.
She also noted the sudden deployment of tear gas during a weekend Halloween event.
"Children at a Halloween parade do not pose an immediate threat to a law enforcement officer," U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said. "And you cannot use riot control weapons against them."
Wearing a green uniform, Bovino settled into the witness chair in federal court in Chicago. He is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, one of nine sectors on the Mexican border, and has become the face of the Trump administration's immigration crackdowns in America's big cities.
The hearing is the latest in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used excessive force, including tear gas, during demonstrations against immigration sweeps in the Chicago area.
The judge has ordered agents to wear badges, and she's banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She subsequently required body cameras after the use of tear gas during the government's Operation Midway Blitz raised concerns that agents were not following her initial order.
Ellis told Bovino, "You could probably get one easily," referring to a camera. She set a Friday deadline for him to get a device and complete training.
The judge chastised Bovino over weekend reports that Border Patrol agents disrupted a children's Halloween parade with tear gas on the city's Northwest Side. Neighbors had gathered in the street as someone was arrested.
As the hearing opened, Ellis read aloud the oaths that she and Bovino took when they began their jobs.
"My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress. ... My role is simply to see that in the enforcement of those laws, the agents are acting in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution," Ellis said.
She wants to hear about agents' use of force in Little Village, Chicago's Mexican enclave. During an enforcement operation there and in an adjacent suburb, Cicero, at least eight people, including four U.S. citizens, were detained before protesters gathered at the scene, officials said.
Attorneys representing a coalition of news outlets and protesters claim Bovino violated the order in Little Village, and they filed an image of him allegedly "throwing tear gas into a crowd without justification."
Over the weekend, masked agents and unmarked SUVs were seen in Chicago's wealthier, predominantly white North Side neighborhoods, where video showed chemical agents deployed on a residential street. Agents have been recorded using tear gas several times over the past few weeks.
At a previous hearing, Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said there are about 200 Border Patrol employees in the Chicago area, and those who are part of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras.
Bovino also led the immigration operation in Los Angeles in recent months, leading to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house, and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.