Oct. 20 (UPI) — Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officials are expected to appear in court on Monday to after a judge last week demanded the agency answer questions about its operations in Chicago.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis for the Northern District of Illinois on Friday ordered ICE and Border Patrol officers to wear body cameras. They were expected in court to explain their tactics, including the use of tear gas, as officers and residents have clashed across the city.
The case was brought as Operation Midway Blitz has led to the arrest of more than 1,000 people in Illinois over the past month after the Trump administration sent federal forces there.
Ellis, who was nominated for the bench by former President Barack Obama, on Thursday ordered federal agents to stop dispersing crowds from places they are legally permitted to be, stop using tear gas on people who are not a threat and start wearing the cameras.
On Friday, she reiterated these orders to both agencies and noted that “that wasn’t a suggestion … it’s not up for debate.”
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that the tactics used by both agencies, which have included using pepper balls and pepper spray against people with no warning, are violating their constitutional rights — and the agencies continue to use them, despite Ellis ordering them to stop in early October.
Both agencies have not followed the judicial orders, and Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin went so far as to suggest they do not exist.
“There is currently no order requiring body cameras, and any suggestion to the contrary is false reporting,” she said, adding that “were a court to enter such an order in the future, it would be an act of extreme judicial activism.”
