CHICAGO – A federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois ordered on Oct. 16 that immigration enforcement agents in the area will have to begin using body-worn cameras, according to local reports.
U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis gave the order in federal court in downtown Chicago following reports that immigration agents had clashes with residents on the city’s Southeast Side that ended with agents deploying tear gas and other chemical weapons. Ellis' decision comes after she issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 9 limiting how immigration agents used non-lethal weapons on civilians.
"I am profoundly concerned about what has been happening over the last week, since I entered this order," Ellis said, according to reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times. "I live in Chicago, if folks haven't noticed. And I'm not blind. … I tend to get news."
The decision out of federal court comes amid President Donald Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz, a crackdown on immigration enforcement in the Chicago area that the administration says is aimed at catching "the worst of the worst" criminal immigrants.
Critics say innocent people are targeted and that Homeland Security’s aggressive tactics have upended life for many people in the region.
