Judge orders ICE field director to testify, 'Operation Midway Blitz' agents to wear body cameras

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A federal judge on Thursday said she is "profoundly concerned" that federal agents working on immigration enforcement in the Chicago area are violating restrictions put in place one week ago regarding the use of tear gas and other crowd control methods, based on reporting from ABC7 Chicago and other Chicago media outlets.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Chicago U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office Director Russell Hott to appear in court on Monday, to answer questions about several incidents where agents were recorded using tear gas and other crowd control methods, and violations of Ellis' order were alleged.

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Judge Ellis also modified the already existing temporary restraining order, or TRO, in place to require all agents working under "Operation Midway Blitz" who have already been issued body cameras to wear them and keep them on during "law enforcement activities" in Chicago.

"I am modifying the (temporary restraining order)," Ellis said in court, "I am adding that all agents who are operating in 'Operation Midway Blitz' are to wear body-worn cameras, and they are to be on."

The body cameras will confirm whether agents are giving the court-ordered two warnings before using tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd control methods in the Chicago area, the judge said.

At the Dirksen courthouse, Judge Ellis said she called the court hearing after seeing a chase-turned-tear-gassed protest on the Southeast Side on Tuesday, and other questionable incidents reported on over the weekend.

"I am profoundly concerned with what is happening over the last week since I entered this order," Ellis said.

SEE ALSO | Pritzker say feds could have violated order against use of tear gas in East Side clash

In particular, Ellis raised concerns over federal agents pursuing and crashing into that vehicle on the Southeast Side, and the federal policies in place for vehicle pursuits.

"There's a reason that the Chicago Police Department has policies about car chases and where they occur, when they need to stop," Ellis said. "We are in an urban densely populated area where crowds are going to converge when there's a commotion."

Attorney Sean Skedzieiewski, representing the Department of Homeland Security, said the judge just does not have all the facts on these incidents and news reports about Albany Park are inaccurate, but he had no information on the Southeast Side incident.

Skedzieiewski added that not all agents have been issued body cameras, including in the Chicago Area of Responsibility, which includes Illinois and five neighboring states.

Customs and Border Protection agents may have been issued body cameras under a different program, and since CBP agents have been detailed to "Operation Midway Blitz," the attorney said they may have access to, and have already been trained on when to activate their cameras.

Given the government shutdown, Skedzieiewski said rolling out a costly program like this would be challenging.

"Numbers of (agents) are changing daily. Consider the lapse of appropriations we're dealing with; I don't think we would be able to roll out a body cam program for ICE. Maybe workable for CBP," Skedzieiewski said.

At the Monday hearing, Judge Ellis said she wants Hott to answer how many agents are equipped with and trained on when to activate their body cams.

Ellis stressed that this is just as important for the government as it is for accountability that her orders are being followed.

"Frankly, Mr. Skedzieiewski, this is going to help the agency (Department of Homeland Security/ICE)," Ellis said. "If there are issues, or I have a concern or plaintiffs' counsel have a concern, that we think there's a violation, we can go back to the cameras."

In a statement to the ABC 7 I-Team, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "There is currently no order requiring body cameras, and any suggestion to the contrary is false reporting."

"DHS will continue to oppose all efforts to vilify law enforcement and prop up the cause of violent rioters," McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. "Were a court to enter such an order in the future, that would be an extreme act of judicial activism."

According to the federal court docket for Thursday's hearing, it states, "The Court modifies the Temporary Restraining Order and orders the parties to meet and confer regarding the modification as to use of body cameras."

ABC 7 Chief Legal Analyst Gil Soffer said it's within Judge Ellis' power to issue the kind of order she did.

SEE ALSO | Agents tackle US citizen after East Side operation leads to crash, spills into Walgreens: VIDEO

"She absolutely is within her powers to enforce orders that she has already issued, and she can take and enforce remedial measures to make sure that they're doing what they said they would do and what she ordered them to do," Soffer said.

"(Judge Ellis) does not have limitless authority. The judge has authority to make sure her orders are honored, and so she can choose mechanisms that accomplish that. And body cameras, in her view, clearly, is one of them," Soffer said. "But it's not limitless. She couldn't order something that is impossibly expensive to accomplish or otherwise just wildly impractical to do."

Soffer added that it speaks volumes that Judge Ellis demanded Chicago ICE Field Office Director Hott to appear in court on Monday to answer questions about alleged TRO violations.

"There's no question that she is very concerned her orders are not being abided by. If she had a small concern, she'd simply call someone lower level into court," Soffer said. "But if she's calling senior personnel from the federal government to answer her questions, she's signaling very clearly, not only is she worried that her order hasn't been abided by, she wants to make sure that it will be, and she wants the highest-level people who will be accountable for it."

In addition to Monday's hearing, Judge Ellis also set a Nov. 5 date for a preliminary injunction hearing to decide whether the TRO will remain in effect for a longer period.

Judge Ellis told the parties the "ideological motivation" behind the Administration's so-called Operation Midway Blitz is, so far, "irrelevant" to this case. Rather, the judge is focused on how agents are enforcing the law, and whether it's violating people's constitutional rights.

"What I'm looking at is how are these agents enforcing the law?" Ellis said. "Are they doing so in a manner that is violating other people's constitutional rights? If that is happening, that needs to stop."