Not only did U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino show his face in a federal courtroom Tuesday, he and a judge will be getting to know each other a lot better in the days to come.
That’s because U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said she wants to meet with the Border Patrol commander every weeknight over the next seven days, as federal agents continue their aggressive deportation campaign that’s stretched from Little Village to Lake View.
Their daily meeting around 6 p.m. will give the judge a chance to speak with Bovino about the events of the day.
And as they do so, Ellis will have in her back pocket a request that she fully ban the feds from using tear gas amid the immigration blitz. The judge said Tuesday that, if agents continue to deploy gas, “they’d better be able to back it up.”
“And if they can’t,” she added, “then they will lose that as something they can use.”
Tuesday’s hearing revealed that Bovino has no body-worn camera — nor the training to use one. Bovino admitted that fact, even after telling the judge that 99% of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents here have that technology.
The judge told him to find himself a body-worn camera by Friday, noting that he probably has “an in” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“I’ve talked to her from time to time,” Bovino acknowledged.
Ellis also told Bovino that a “sense of safety was shattered on Saturday” when tear gas was used in Old Irving Park while children were on their way to a Halloween parade. She gave the feds’ lawyers a warning about its use when trick-or-treating time comes around this Friday.
“I do not want to get violation reports from the plaintiffs that show that agents are out and about on Halloween where kids are present and tear gas is being deployed,” Ellis said.
Bovino offered little reaction to the judge’s comments about the use of tear gas with children nearby. He appeared in full uniform for Tuesday’s 90-minute hearing, in which he faced the judge from the witness stand. Neither of them brought much bravado to the hearing.
Rather, they remained calm, cordial and professional.
The judge also said she wants the feds to deliver all use-of-force reports from their so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” dating back to Sept. 2. She said she also wants any available bodycam footage.
And, she said, she wants a chart of “everyone who has been arrested, that has not been arrested for anything immigration-related.”
The judge is presiding over a lawsuit about the feds’ treatment of protesters during the campaign against immigration. The lawsuit was brought by media organizations, including the Chicago Headline Club, Block Club Chicago and the Chicago Newspaper Guild, which represents journalists at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Judges at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse have been given various answers in recent days when they’ve asked who is in charge of “Midway Blitz.” But a CBP commander told Ellis last week that Bovino, specifically, is the man in charge.
When Bovino exited the north side of the building on Tuesday, he was surrounded by a platoon of border patrol agents dressed in green and most with their faces covered.
Chicago police tried to keep protesters away from border agents and Bovino, but dozens of protesters surrounded government vehicles on West Adams Street near South Dearborn.
Jennifer Victoria was among those shouting at Bovino and Border Patrol officers using a megaphone.
Victoria, who is of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Honduran descent and lives in Humboldt Park, said she needed to be at Tuesday’s hearing.
“To let our voice be heard because what they’re doing is wrong,” she said. “They don’t give a f—. They don’t respect us. Why should we respect them?”
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday called Bovino “a barbaric individual” and said, “I just hope that this judge provides some level of accountability, because that’s not what’s happening right now.”
The Department of Homeland Security used its X social media account later Tuesday to share footage of Bovino outside the courthouse and declare, “We REFUSE to back down from our mission to make America safe.”
Ellis ordered Bovino into court after attorneys accused him of personally throwing tear gas into a crowd in Little Village last Thursday without justification. A DHS spokesperson said “DHS can think of nobody better to correct Judge Ellis’ deep misconceptions about its mission.”
Still, when asked multiple times Monday, a CBP spokesman would not confirm that Bovino planned to show.
Now, Bovino is expected to meet with Ellis every weeknight through Nov 5., when a hearing has been set over a request for a preliminary injunction in the case. Justice Department lawyers balked Tuesday at the various demands Ellis placed on Bovino, asking her to put it all on hold and suggesting they might turn to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ellis declined, and she made clear that Bovino must also sit for an under-oath deposition with the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
When Tuesday’s hearing got started, the judge spoke for about 20 minutes before even asking Bovino a question. Instead, she walked him through the details of a temporary restraining order that she issued earlier this month, restricting the feds’ use of force against protesters and journalists.
“You’ve got to leave journalists alone,” she told him. “If they’re doing their job, they need to be left alone to do their job.”
When Ellis finally began to ask questions, Bovino often responded with “yes ma’ams.” Later, when she asked if they were on the “same page” regarding her order, Bovino noticeably qualified his answer.
“I understand what you’re saying, your honor,” he said.
So she pressed again.
“We’re on the same page,” Bovino said the second time, “that we will abide by the [temporary restraining order].”
The judge said she doesn’t intend to micromanage or tie the hands of federal agents as they enforce immigration laws. She specifically told Bovino, “my role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress.”
Rather, she said her job is to make sure agents enforce them “in a manner that is consistent with your obligations under the law.”
The judge asked Bovino about her order’s requirement that agents “have visible identification … affixed to their uniforms or helmets and prominently displayed.”
Bovino told the judge, “I instructed all agents under my command … to place an identifier conspicuously somewhere on their uniform.”
She also clarified the portion of her order that requires the feds to give two warnings before the use of “riot control” weapons such as tear gas.
“A warning has to include what it is that you’re going to do, before you do it,” Ellis told him.
The judge referenced two Little Village incidents last week, including a woman’s report that she was pulled to the ground by two agents, one with a knee on her and the other on her legs. Ellis said there was no visible identification of the agents in photographs — and noted that a chemical spray was deployed outside a window from an agent sitting in a passenger seat.
“And there was no warning given before the spray was deployed,” Ellis said.
A day later in Little Village,“there were two tear gas canisters that you deployed,” Ellis said.
Bovino nodded.
She noted that in a declaration filed in court and a video, “there was no warning prior to deploying both of those canisters. And … one of the canisters was thrown over the head of the crowd.”
When Ellis turned to the use of body-worn cameras, Bovino said they are “sector-specific” and require training.
“Do you have one?” Ellis asked.
“I’ve not yet received a — a body-worn camera, nor the training,” Bovino said.
“How about by Friday you get one for yourself,” Ellis said, telling Bovino to make sure that “everybody” working on Operation Midway Blitz wears a body-worn camera.
“Yes, ma’am,” Bovino responded.
“I think it actually goes a long way to ensure that everything is happening the way it’s supposed to,” Ellis said.
“The cameras,” she told him, “are your friend.”
Moments later, after the judge made arrangements for their daily meeting and ensured Bovino he won’t have to meet with her on the weekends, the judge finally sent Bovino on his way.
She told him, “I will let you get back to work.”
Contributing: Michael Puente, Mariah Woelfel and Fran Spielman
Neither the reporters nor editors who worked on this story — including some represented by the Newspaper Guild — have been involved in the lawsuit described in this article.
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