Border Patrol Commander Bovino faces criticism over aggressive tactics, court demands answers on federal agents’ behavior
Border Patrol Commander Bovino: After being seen on camera hurling what seems to be a tear gas canister into a crowd, US Customs and Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino will appear in court on Tuesday to address a judge’s concerns on the harsh methods of federal agents.
This month, a temporary restraining order prohibiting authorities from using certain forms of force against demonstrators was granted by District Judge Sara Ellis. She has expressed worries in recent weeks about whether her instruction was being honored.
What we know about the aforementioned instances is as follows.
Several violations of the directive
Bovino “apparently threw tear gas into a crowd without justification” during a demonstration against immigration officials in Chicago’s Little Village area, according to a court petition against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A journalistic freedom organization called the Chicago Headline Club released the filing on Friday.
In a statement posted on social media on Friday, DHS claimed that after giving Bovino “multiple warnings to back up,” a “mob of rioters” hit him in the head with an item and that agents then deployed “chemical munitions.” Bovino was directed to appear before the court the same day.
As part of Operation Midway Blitz, an immigration enforcement operation that has led to over 1,000 arrests since it started on September 8, the event is the most recent illustration of the forceful crowd control techniques used by federal authorities.
As part of the operation, federal officers landed on the city’s north side over the weekend. On Saturday morning, they seemed to use tear gas in Chicago’s Old Irving Park area.
As DHS officers continue their immigration enforcement efforts around the city, a number of order breaches have come under examination since Ellis’ temporary restraining order on October 9.
Officials from the Trump administration who were in charge of the operation’s immigration enforcement efforts testified before the judge last week on their employment of these strategies during protest standoffs.
At the hearing on October 20, Ellis grilled two DHS officials on the use of these crowd control techniques that she said went against her order, focusing mostly on three occurrences.
The incidents in question
Video of a pastor getting blasted with pepper balls at a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Broadview, just outside of Chicago, in September prompted Ellis to issue a 14-day restraining order. The order prohibits the use of certain forms of force and crowd control by ICE and CBP personnel.
Federal authorities repeatedly shot pepper balls at Rev. David Black of Chicago’s First Presbyterian Church while he was wearing a clerical collar.
Ellis asked Shawn Byers, the Deputy ICE Field Office Director, about the event at the hearing on October 20. He said that despite many orders to leave federal property, the priest chose not to do so.
In order to interview Trump administration authorities about order breaches, Ellis called them last week. He asked them about their command structures and the reasons for the use of chemical weapons in each event.
Regarding an October 12 event in Albany Park, another hamlet north of Chicago, where federal authorities used what seems to be a chemical substance to dissuade the crowd, the court questioned Deputy event Commander Kyle Harvick.
On October 14, while conducting an immigration enforcement operation in an East Side area of Chicago, CBP officers chased and collided with a car.
Following the event, a sizable crowd gathered at a nearby junction. The DHS informed the media that the gathering became “hostile,” and agents used crowd control techniques.
Ellis said that a federal agent was seen on camera brandishing a pistol at onlookers outside an ice cream store on October 19 in the Rolling Meadows area.
Additional alleged infractions
Before tear gas seems to be used, CBP officers arrested a construction worker in Irving Park on Saturday. As a throng gathered around the agents, a neighbor who wished to remain anonymous reported seeing two individuals, including a guy who seemed to be about 70 years old, “tossed to the ground.”
“A group of agitators surrounded and boxed in Border Patrol agents,” DHS told CNN in a statement on Monday. “The Border Patrol had to use crowd control measures to safely clear the area after multiple warnings and the crowd continued to advance on them.”
The Chicago Headline Club accused DHS of other breaches of the court’s temporary restraining order related to this event in a new lawsuit it filed against the agency on Monday.
The plaintiffs claimed that “without any audible warning, agents deployed tear gas” that subsequently caught fire after making arrests while departing the site.