Appeals court blocks order requiring Bovino to brief judge on Chicago immigration sweeps

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CHICAGO (AP) — An appeals court intervened Wednesday and suddenly blocked an order that required a senior Border Patrol official to give unprecedented daily briefings to a judge about immigration sweeps in Chicago.

The one-page suspension by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came before Greg Bovino’s first late-afternoon meeting with U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis at the courthouse in downtown Chicago.

Ellis ordered the meetings Tuesday after weeks of tense encounters and increasingly aggressive tactics by government agents working Operation Midway Blitz, which has resulted in more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

Bovino told Fox News that he was eager to talk to Ellis. But government lawyers were appealing her decision at the same time, calling it “extraordinarily disruptive.”

“The order significantly interferes with the quintessentially executive function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a daily basis,” the Justice Department argued.

Lawyers for news outlets and activists whose lawsuit alleging excessive force by agents in and around Chicago prompted the judge to order the briefings from Bovino have until 5 p.m. Thursday to respond in the appeals court.

Ellis' order followed the use of tear gas in a neighborhood where children gathered for a Halloween parade last weekend on Chicago's Northwest Side. Neighbors joined in the street as someone was arrested.

“Halloween is on Friday,” the judge said Tuesday. “I do not want to get violation reports from the plaintiffs that show that agents are out and about on Halloween, where kids are present and tear gas is being deployed.”

Bovino defended agents' actions.

“If she wants to meet with me every day, then she’s going to see, she’s going to have a very good firsthand look at just how bad things really are on the streets of Chicago,” Bovino told Fox News. “I look forward to meeting with that judge to show her exactly what’s happening and the extreme amount of violence perpetrated against law enforcement here.”

Meanwhile prosecutors filed charges against Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic congressional candidate, and five other people over protests at an immigration enforcement building in Broadview, outside Chicago. The indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses them of illegally blocking an agent's car on Sept. 26.

Abughazaleh called the prosecution an “attempt to silence dissent.”

The Chicago court actions came as groups and officials across the country have filed lawsuits aimed at restricting federal deployments of National Guard troops.

President Donald Trump's administration will remain blocked from deploying troops in the Chicago area until at least the latter half of November, following a U.S. Supreme Court order Wednesday calling on the parties to file additional legal briefs.

The justices indicated that they would not act before Nov. 17 on the administration's emergency appeal to overturn a lower-court ruling blocking the deployments.

In Portland, Oregon, a federal trial seeking to block a troop deployment got underway Wednesday morning with a police commander describing on the witness stand how federal agents at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building repeatedly fired tear gas at nonviolent protesters.

In Chicago, Bovino, who is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, was to sit for daily 5:45 p.m. briefings to report how his agents are enforcing the law and whether they are staying within constitutional bounds, Ellis said. The check-ins were to take place until a Nov. 5 hearing.

Ellis also demanded that Bovino produce all use-of-force reports since Sept. 2 from agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz.

The judge expressed confidence Tuesday that the check-ins would prevent excessive use of force in Chicago neighborhoods.

Ellis previously ordered agents to wear badges and has banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She subsequently required body cameras after the use of tear gas raised concerns that agents were not following her initial order.

Ellis set a Friday deadline for Bovino to get a camera and to complete training.

Lawyers for the government have repeatedly defended the actions of agents, including those from ICE, and told the judge that videos and other portrayals of enforcement actions have been one-sided.

Bovino still must sit for a videotaped Thursday deposition, an interview in private, with lawyers from both sides.