chicago — CHICAGO (AP) — Many federal officers charged with enforcing immigration laws in the Chicago area have body cameras, but Congress will have to allocate more money to expand their use, officials testified Monday at a hearing on tactics used by agents in the Trump administration’s crackdown, which produced More than 1,000 arrests.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis last week ordered uniformed agents to wear cameras, if available, and turn them on when participating in arrests, searches and building searches or when deployed to protests. She held a hearing on Monday during which she questioned a US Customs and Border Protection official and a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official about the operation and Complaints that customers are increasingly using combative tactics.
Border Patrol agents who are part of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras, said Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander for CBP. 201 in the Chicago area, he said.
But Sean Byers, deputy director of ICE’s field office, said more money from Congress is needed to expand camera use beyond that agency’s two field offices. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents working at a building in Broadview, outside Chicago, did not wear any cameras, where migrants pass before being detained elsewhere, he said. It has been the site of protests that have been vociferous at times.
Byers also explained that although there are surveillance cameras outside the ICE facility, they record previous footage every 28 days. Ellis expressed surprise when Byers said this meant footage taken before September 18 had disappeared. The Broadview facility became the focus of protesters after the start of Operation Midway Blitz in early September.
“All of that has to be preserved,” Ellis said.
Near the end of the hearing, Ellis said she would allow attorneys to question additional federal officials, including… Gregory Bovinothe head of the Border Patrol who leads the CBP operation in Chicago and has also been central to the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles.
The hearing was part of a lawsuit filed by news organizations and community groups that have seen protests and arrests in the Chicago area. Ellis said earlier this month that agents must wear badges, and banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists.
Then last Thursday, she said she was “a little flabbergasted” after seeing television images of street confrontations in which agents used tear gas and other tactics.
Harvick defended the use of tear gas against protesters in a Chicago neighborhood on October 12, saying that residents who gathered “would not let the agents leave the place.”
“The longer we wait somewhere and issues come up, the more serious the situation becomes,” Harvick said Monday. “This is a safety concern, not only for my brother who is a Border Patrol agent, but also for the detainees and other people who come out to see what is happening.”
The government is angry at any suggestion of wrongdoing.
“The full context is that Chicago law enforcement officers have been, and continue to be, attacked, injured, and incapacitated from enforcing federal law,” US Justice Department lawyer Samuel Holt said in a lawsuit on Friday.
Separately, President Donald Trump’s administration was denied entry Deployment of the National Guard To assist immigration officers in Illinois. This order expires on Thursday unless extended. And management too It was requested from the Supreme Court To allow publishing.