By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Related Press
CHICAGO (AP) — A senior Border Patrol official who has grow to be the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago is due in courtroom Tuesday to take questions concerning the enforcement operation within the Chicago space, which has produced greater than 1,800 arrests and complaints of extreme power.
Greg Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, one in all 9 sectors on the Mexican border, is himself accused of throwing tear gasoline canisters at protesters.
U.S. District Decide Sara Ellis initially stated brokers should put on badges, and she or he banned them from utilizing sure riot management strategies in opposition to peaceable protesters and journalists. She later stated she was involved brokers weren’t following her order after seeing footage of road confrontations involving tear gasoline throughout the administration’s Operation Halfway Blitz, and she or he modified the order to additionally require physique cameras.
Ellis final week prolonged questioning of Bovino from two hours to 5 as a result of she desires to listen to about brokers’ latest use of power within the metropolis’s Mexican enclave of Little Village. Throughout an enforcement operation final week in Little Village and the adjoining suburb of Cicero, not less than eight individuals, together with 4 U.S. residents, had been detained earlier than protesters gathered on the scene, native officers stated.
Over the weekend, masked federal brokers and unmarked SUVs had been noticed on the town’s wealthier, predominantly white North aspect neighborhoods of Lakeview and Lincoln Park, the place footage confirmed chemical brokers deployed on a residential road. Federal brokers have been seen and videotaped deploying tear gasoline in residential streets a lot of occasions over the previous few weeks.
Bovino additionally led the immigration operation is Los Angeles in latest months, resulting in 1000’s of arrests. Brokers smashed automotive home windows, blew open a door to a home and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback. In Chicago, comparable Border Patrol operations have led to viral footage of tense confrontations with protesters.
U.S. Customs and Border Safety Commander Gregory Bovino holds a canister as he stands with federal immigration enforcement brokers throughout a skirmish with protesters in Little Village on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 in Chicago. (Anthony Vazquez/Solar-Instances/Chicago Solar-Instances by way of AP)
At a earlier listening to, Ellis questioned Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Safety, and Shawn Byers, deputy area workplace director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, about their businesses’ use of power insurance policies and the distribution of physique cameras. Harvick stated there are about 200 Border Patrol workers within the Chicago space, and those that are a part of Operation Halfway Blitz have cameras. However Byers stated more cash from Congress could be wanted to increase digital camera use past two of that company’s area workplaces.
