Federal officials try to reassure judge they’re following her orders to tone down and record Chicagoland protest actions
By Whitney Wild, Andi Babineau, Cindy Von Quednow, CNN
Chicago (CNN) — Trump administration officials are defending themselves in court as a federal judge demands explanations for their response to tense protests against immigration enforcement actions in Chicago.
Monday’s hearing began with a promise Customs and Border Protection is taking seriously the judge’s order for its agents to wear and use body-worn cameras: Every CBP agent on duty in Chicago – more than 200 – has a body camera and knows they are required to use it, Deputy Incident Commander Kyle Harvick said.
US District Judge Sara Ellis then calmly peppered Harvick with questions about how agents working on Operation Midway Blitz are trained and respond to protesters in and around Chicago, the latest target of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The hearing was called in response to news reports suggesting agents were violating her order to avoid less-lethal munitions and tear gas.
Ellis, an Obama appointee, initially had called for the interim head of Chicago’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, Russell Hott, to appear Monday “to explain to me why I am seeing images of tear gas being deployed and reading reports that there were no warnings given before it was deployed out in the field.” After seeming to agree to her request, the Department of Homeland Security told Ellis on Friday that Hott had left the city to return to his permanent job as field operations director in Washington, DC.
The Trump administration instead offered Harvick and ICE Deputy Field Office Director Shawn Byers, and Ellis agreed – as long as the officials would disclose how the agencies are deploying riot control tactics against protesters and journalists.
“I’m looking at it from the outside,” Ellis said in court Monday.
The judge said Monday, however, she will allow Hott and Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent at CBP, to be deposed at a later time.
She added since Hott was the highest officer in Chicago at the time the protests occurred, he should be able to speak to what happened.
The judge last week added mandatory body-worn cameras to her earlier restraining order, saying it appeared agents were not warning demonstrators before deploying tear gas and firing pepper balls on them.
“That’s the nice thing about body cameras is that they pick up events before the triggering event happens,” Ellis said then.
Operation Midway Blitz is Trump’s recent ICE deployment across Chicagoland, yielding more than 1,000 arrests of migrants across Illinois between September 8 and October 3, DHS said.
Harvick on Monday reiterated the White House’s denials of news coverage of tear gas used on protesters without warning in a recent demonstration in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, although he acknowledged he had not seen it personally. A government attorney last week said the judge was relying on “one-sided and selectively edited media reports.”
Judge wants answers
Ellis early this month issued a sweeping order restricting agents’ crowd control tactics, use of force and actions against journalists documenting protests in Chicago. During last week’s hearing, she said she had concerns about her order being followed.
The judge indicated recent news reports had led her to believe the Trump administration may not have been following her instructions.
“I’m not happy,” Ellis said in a stern tone. “I’m really not happy.”
“At least from what I’m seeing, I’m having serious concerns that my order’s being followed,” she said from the bench.
The judge originally required all agents to wear cameras. But her order doesn’t require them if they’re undercover, not in uniform or exempt by Customs and Border Protection, ICE or DHS policy.
Federal officials claimed Harvick would be the most appropriate person to testify after DHS determined it was “mostly, if not entirely” Border Patrol personnel who were involved in recent tear gas incidents, CNN affiliate WTTW reported.
During a telephone hearing that day, the judge said she had no desire to “micromanage” who the government presents at Monday’s hearing but that she’s been “very clear” she wants to hear from someone who can fill her in on “what’s been going on over the last week,” the station reported.
“Whoever comes has to be able to answer these questions,” Ellis said, according to WTTW. “And if the government chooses … to bring someone in and that person’s answers to me are ‘I don’t know’ and ‘It’s not my responsibility’ … then we’ll come in Tuesday with a different person until I get the answers I want.”
Protests continue at Broadview
This weekend marked the first since a fence was ordered removed at the Broadview ICE facility, the center of anti-ICE protests in the Chicago area.
The ICE building outside Chicago has been the site of confrontations as protesters have come out to decry immigration arrests.
Over 100 protesters gathered outside the facility Friday morning, with Broadview police officers, Cook County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois State Police gathered to keep demonstrators in the area designated for them. The protest, though loud, has remained calm. As of 5 p.m. CT, 15 arrests had been made, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said.
At least 15 people were arrested on Saturday in connection with another demonstration at the facility, the agency said.
Byers, the ICE deputy field office director, said Monday he has reviewed incidents involving protesters at the facility and no one has been disciplined.
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This story was written by Andy Rose in Atlanta and Cindy Von Quednow in Los Angeles, with reporting from Whitney Wild, Andi Babineau and Bill Kirkos in Chicago and Rebekah Riess in Atlanta.
