Many federal officers assigned to immigration enforcement in the Chicago area have body cameras but Congress would have to allocate more funds to expand their use, officials testified Monday at a hearing about the tactics agents are using in Trump administration’s crackdown, which has produced more than 1,000 arrests.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis last week ordered uniformed agents to wear cameras, if available, and turn them on when engaged in arrests, frisks and building searches or when being deployed to protests. She held a hearing Monday at which she questioned a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official and a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement official about the operation and complaints that agents are increasingly using combative tactics.
Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with CBP, said Border Patrol agents who are part of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras. He said 201 are in the Chicago area.
But Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for ICE, said more money from Congress would be needed to expand camera use beyond two of that agency's field offices. He said no cameras have been worn by ICE agents working at a building in Broadview, outside Chicago, where immigrants pass through before being detained elsewhere. It's been the site of protests that at times have been tumultuous.
Byers also explained that while there are surveillance cameras outside the ICE facility, they record over previous footage every 28 days. Ellis expressed surprise when Byers said that meant footage from before Sept. 18 was gone. The Broadview facility became a focus of protesters after Operation Midway Blitz began in early September.
“All of that needs to be preserved,” Ellis said.
Near the end of the hearing, Ellis said she would allow attorneys to question additional federal officials, including Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief who is leading CBP's Chicago operation and also was central to the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles.
The hearing was part of a lawsuit by news organizations and community groups witnessing protests and arrests in the Chicago area. Ellis said earlier this month that agents must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists.
Then last Thursday, she said she was a “little startled” after seeing TV images of street confrontations in which agents used tear gas and other tactics.
Harvick defended the use on tear gas on protesters in a Chicago neighborhood on Oct. 12, saying residents who had gathered “would not allow agents to leave the scene.”
“The longer we loiter on a scene and subjects come, the situation gets more and more dangerous,” Harvick said Monday. “And that's a safety concern, not just for my brother Border Patrol agents but the detainee and other people who come out to see what's going on.”
The government has bristled at any suggestion of wrongdoing.
“The full context is that law enforcement officers in Chicago have been, and continue to be, attacked, injured, and impeded from enforcing federal law,” U.S. Justice Department attorney Samuel Holt said in a court filing Friday.
Separately, President Donald Trump's administration has been barred from deploying the National Guard to assist immigration officers in Illinois. That order expires Thursday unless extended. The administration also has asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment.
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