Chicago
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U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis still has questions.
At a hearing Monday, she pressed two federal officials on responding to ongoing, intense protests in Chicago as part of Operation Midway Blitz, particularly after expanding her temporary restraining order to include requiring officers on the ground to turn on their body cameras when they encounter protesters.
She tried to better understand which agency is responsible for what, how its restraining order was disseminated to federal agents working in Chicago, how thorough the training on crowd control and protests was and what happened during some difficult encounters in recent weeks.
Here are the key takeaways from Monday’s hearing.
Judge wants body cameras on all officers at protests, but not all have them
Ellis issued a sweeping order earlier this month restricting crowd control tactics, use of force and officer actions against journalists documenting protests in Chicago. At a hearing last week, she said she was concerned about whether her order was being followed.
During the hearing, she added mandatory body cameras to her earlier restraining order, saying it appeared officers failed to warn protesters before deploying tear gas and shooting pepper balls at them.
The judge had initially required all agents to wear cameras, but his order does not require them if they are undercover, not wearing a uniform or exempt by Customs and Border Protection, ICE or DHS policy.
Every CBP officer on duty in Chicago — more than 200 — has a body camera and knows they have to use it, CBP Deputy Incident Commander Kyle Harvick said at Monday’s hearing.
However, ICE special response teams have not been issued body cameras, said Shawn Byers, deputy director of ICE’s field office. They went to one or two field offices but stopped being issued and would have to go through Congress for approval, Byers said without elaborating.
ICE agents have been trained on how to respond to protests and arrest protesters as part of their use of force training, Byers said. They have the ability to issue citations for crimes and misdemeanors during protests.
Members of the ICE Special Response Team have been outside the Broadview Detention Center, the center of many anti-immigration protests monitoring the demonstrations, and Byers said they, too, are extensively trained.
ICE agents are also specifically trained on how to handle journalists and refer press questions to Public Affairs. He added that journalists have the right to observe, provided they do not interfere.
“As long as they’re in the media business, we shouldn’t have a problem with the press,” Byers said.
Asked about an incident outside the Broadview facility in which a pastor reported being hit with pepper balls, Byers said the pastor did not leave federal property when he was given multiple orders to do so.
The Rev. David Black said he was outside the facility praying for ICE agents and those detained inside when he was struck. He told CNN’s Erin Burnett on October 9 that there was no prior warning of the use of non-lethal force during the protest.
“After they shot me in the head and face, and repeatedly in the torso, arms and legs, I was protected by the bodies of others who were there who rushed to support me and received many more shots aimed at me,” Black said.
Operation Midway Blitz is Trump’s recent ICE deployment throughout Chicagoland, which resulted in more than 1,000 migrant arrests across Illinois between September 8 and October 3, DHS said.
Harvick on Monday reiterated the White House’s denials of media coverage of tear gas being used without warning on demonstrators during a recent demonstration in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, although he acknowledged he had not seen it personally. Sean Skedzielewski, a lawyer representing the Trump administration, said last week that the judge was relying on “one-sided and selectively edited media reports.”
When force is used during protests, reports are reviewed by ICE leadership, the Office of Professional Responsibility and a review board to determine whether the use of force is consistent with policy, Byers said.
The agency’s Special Response Team falls under the same law enforcement mission as ICE, but its members report directly to Byers, he said, adding that ICE leadership is “kind of a revolving door.”
Harvick and Byers testified Monday after Russell Hott, the former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Chicago field office, left the Chicago area to return to his permanent position as director of field operations in Washington, DC.
Ellis will continue questioning the top brass later after saying Monday she would still fire Hott and CBP Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino.
She added that since Hott was Chicago’s top officer at the time of the protests, he should be able to speak about what happened on the ground.
