A federal judge made a big statement last week when she ordered top U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino into her downtown courtroom.
Bovino arrived about an hour before his scheduled appearance in Chicago courtroom of U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who has been deluged with complaints that Bovino and other federal agents have violated her orders over the use of tear gas and other riot control weapons across the city. Shortly after 10 a.m., he took the stand.
U.S. Border Patrol Commander-At-Large Gregory Bovino stands with federal immigration enforcement agents during a skirmish with protesters near West 27th Street and South Sacramento Avenue in Little Village last week.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
On the eve of Bovino’s scheduled appearance, lawyers had asked Ellis to completely ban federal agents from using tear gas until the judge rules on their request for a preliminary injunction. Attorney Steve Art wrote that the Trump administration is “plainly in contempt, and sanctions are warranted.”
“Something must be done,” he wrote.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Friday that “DHS can think of nobody better to correct Judge Ellis’ deep misconceptions” than Bovino.
Bovino might have to explain the claim, made in a court filing over the weekend, that he complained about the judge to a news reporter. It said Bovino asked the reporter, “did Judge Ellis get hit in the head by a rock like I did this morning?”
“Maybe she needs to see what that’s like before she gives an order like that,” Bovino added, according to the court filing.
Ellis will have multiple options if she’s unhappy with Bovino, including a potential finding of contempt or other sanctions like banning tear gas. However, she wasn’t so confrontational when questioning two lower-ranking officials during a separate proceeding last week.
The judge’s decision to summon Bovino into her courtroom set the stage for this latest hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse over the feds’ use of force during the aggressive deportation campaign known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”
The judge is presiding over a lawsuit about the feds’ treatment of protesters amid the campaign. 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.
The case has already led to orders forbidding agents from using gas and other “riot control” weapons without two warnings or against people who pose no immediate threat. The judge also ordered agents “currently equipped and trained with body-worn cameras” to activate them when participating in enforcement activity.
The Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
Ellis said early last week that the plaintiffs’ lawyers could spend two hours deposing Bovino under oath behind closed doors. The deposition is scheduled for Wednesday, a proceeding that’s separate from Tuesday’s hearing. Ellis said that in the deposition the plaintiffs’ lawyers must limit their questions to “how” federal officers are enforcing the law and whether they are violating people’s constitutional rights. She said at the time that Bovino should not be asked “why” Chicago has been targeted for the immigration campaign.
But Thursday, Ellis more than doubled the time limits on Bovino’s deposition, expanding it to five hours. She did so moments before attorneys in the case accused Bovino of violating one of her earlier orders by tossing tear gas into a crowd in Little Village without justification.
One day later, she ordered the Trump administration to “produce Defendant Gregory Bovino, in person,” for Tuesday’s hearing.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Bovino participated Thursday in the deployment of “riot control measures” after a crowd “grew more hostile” and began throwing rocks and other objects at agents, “including one that struck Chief Greg Bovino in the head.”
She also said Border Patrol agents “repeated multiple warnings” to the crowd.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers insist “the statement is a lie.”
“The crowd in Little Village was peaceful at the moment Defendant Bovino started the conflict by launching canisters of tear gas into the assembled crowd, and … no warnings or dispersal orders were given before he did so,” they wrote in a weekend court filing.
In additional filings Monday, the plaintiffs’ lawyers complained that agents deployed multiple canisters of tear gas without warning Friday in Lake View, and that they did so without wearing identifying numbers or badges as also required by Ellis’ order.
Additionally, they pointed to an incident Saturday in Old Irving Park. They told Ellis that “federal agents unleashed violence, tackling at least three people, including one who is approximately 70 years old. … Another man was speaking with agents, did not appear to be hurting anyone or threatening anyone, and they tackled him to the ground and put him in a headlock.”
The lawyers explained that “children in the neighborhood were preparing for a Halloween parade. … People were in their pajamas; one woman came outside with her wet head in a towel.”
“This experience,” they wrote, “was terrifying for residents.”
Neither the reporter nor editors working on this story — which include some represented by the News Guild — have been involved in this lawsuit.
This is a developing story.