Chicago judge says Border Patrol official lied about threats before
restricting agents' use force
[November 07, 2025]
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO and SOPHIA TAREEN
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday issued an
extensive injunction restricting federal agents' use of force, saying
Thursday that a top Border Patrol official leading an immigration
crackdown repeatedly lied about threats posed by protesters and
reporters.
The preliminary injunction came in response to a lawsuit filed by news
outlets and protesters who allege federal agents have used excessive
force during the operation that has netted more than 3,000 arrests and
led to heated clashes across the nation’s third-largest city and its
many suburbs.
“I see little reason for the use of force that the federal agents are
currently using,” said U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis. “I don’t find
defendants’ version of events credible."
The order restricts agents from using certain riot control weapons, such
as tear gas and pepper balls, “unless such force is objectively
necessary” to prevent “an immediate threat.” It also bars agents from
using physical force, including shoving protesters and journalists to
the ground, and it requires agents to give two warnings before using
riot control weapons.
Ellis said her order will prevent the “chilling of First Amendment
right."
A Department of Homeland Security official said in a statement that DHS
plans to appeal the ruling, calling it “an extreme act by an activist
judge that risks the lives and livelihoods of law enforcement officers.”
The Chicago area crackdown, part of the Trump administration's growing
federal intervention in Democratic strongholds, has triggered a litany
of court action, including forcing improvements at a federal immigration
facility activists say is a de facto detention center and blocking a
National Guard deployment.
Thursday's ruling largely mirrors an earlier temporary order that
required agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain
riot-control techniques, such as tear gas, against peaceful protesters
and journalists. After repeatedly chastising federal officials for not
following her previous orders, she added a requirement for body cameras.
In delivering the injunction, Ellis quoted former late presidents
including George Washington and a famous poem about Chicago by Carl
Sandburg. She described protesters and advocates facing tear gas, having
guns pointed at them and being thrown to the ground, saying “that would
cause a reasonable person to think twice about exercising their
fundamental rights.”
A day earlier, attorneys for both sides repeatedly clashed in court over
accounts of several tense incidents since the immigration crackdown
began in September. Several involved Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol
commander who has led the crackdown, including an incident where he
threw a cannister of gas a crowd after alleging he was hit by a rock.
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Hundreds of community members, parents, and elected officials attend
a rally at Northcenter Town Square, in support of "Ms. Diana" an
educator who was detained by federal law enforcement officers at
Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center this morning,
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Chicago. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Chicago
Sun-Times via AP)
Ellis said Bovino walked back the claim about the rock after video
evidence didn't show it to be true.
“Bovino admitted that he lied,” she said.
She also noted that Bovino denied using force on a man he was filmed
“obviously tackling” to the ground.
Bovino, who led a similar operation in Los Angeles, has been forced
to sit for hours of closed-door depositions related to growing legal
challenges stemming from “Operation Midway Blitz.” Clips of the
private interviews, where Bovino is dressed in his green Border
Patrol uniform and at times evasive, were played in court, along
with body camera footage.
Bovino —head of a Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California —
has repeatedly defended agents' use of force, while also dodging
questions about Border Patrol agents tactics. He oversees nearly 230
agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that have been in the
Chicago area.
In court Thursday, an attorney representing the federal government
said Bovino has a body-worn camera after Ellis required him to get
one and completed the training for using it at a previous hearing.
A message left Thursday for the Department of Homeland Security
wasn’t immediately returned.
During Wednesday's eight-hour hearing, witnesses gave emotional
testimony when describing experiencing tear gas, being shot in the
head with pepper balls while praying, and having guns pointed at
them when recording agents in residential streets.
Ellis questioned witnesses about how these experiences impacted them
and if they prevented them from protesting again. One after another,
witnesses described their anxiety about returning to protests or
advocacy work.
“I get really nervous because it just feels like I'm not safe,”
Leslie Cortez, a youth organizer in the Chicago suburb of Cicero,
told Ellis. “And I question my safety when I go out.”
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