CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to immigration enforcement in the Chicago area have been given body cameras, an official testified Monday as a judge held a hearing to learn more about the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has produced more than 1,000 arrests as well as complaints that agents are increasingly using combative tactics.
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.
Each Border Patrol agent who is part of Operation Midway Blitz “now has a body-worn camera,” Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the judge.
He said 201 Border Patrol agents are in the Chicago area. Other federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are also involved in the operation.
The hearing was the latest test in 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. “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.”
Government attorneys said Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would also appear in court.
News media and community groups submitted five pages of proposed topics for the hearing. They covered a variety of subjects, from the number of agents in the Chicago area to questions about training, tactics and justification for widespread immigration strikes. It’s not clear what the judge will allow to be asked.
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.
