Crime & Law

Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino Gets Out of Daily Check-Ins For Now After Appeals Court Grants Emergency Stay

Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino will not appear in court Wednesday for what was to be the first of his daily check-ins with a judge after a federal appellate court granted an emergency stay hours before he was set to appear.

The Justice Department filed an emergency motion seeking to toss out an order requiring Bovino to attend daily meetings at Chicago’s federal courthouse with the federal judge who has temporarily barred immigration agents from deploying tear gas and other weapons against journalists, protesters and anyone not posing an immediate threat.

The DOJ filed the motion with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday afternoon, hours before Bovino was set to appear at the Dirksen Federal Building to meet with U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis. The appeals court issued their order a short time later.

Plaintiffs have until 5 p.m. Thursday to appeal the stay. 

DOJ attorneys claim the meeting requirement “significantly interferes” with the “quintessentially executive function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced” by sidelining a senior official who is “critical to that mission on a daily basis.”

“Every occasion that Chief Bovino is required to prepare and appear for those daily court sessions is time that he would otherwise spend carrying out the important law-enforcement functions he has been assigned,” the DOJ wrote in its motion, which called Ellis' order “extraordinary and extraordinarily disruptive.”

The appeals court decision only pertains to those daily check-ins and not other requirements imposed by Ellis.

Ellis on Tuesday spent more than an hour questioning the Border Patrol leader about a series of increasingly aggressive immigration raids across Chicago and the suburbs. During that questioning, Ellis ordered Bovino to report to her chambers every weekday to recap the events of the day and inform her of any use of force.

Bovino still remains scheduled to sit for an hourslong deposition on Thursday morning beginning at 10 a.m. in which he’ll face questioning about how his agents are enforcing the law in and around Chicago.

That under-oath questioning will be done behind closed doors, and it’s not yet clear whether a transcript of the deposition will be made public. Beyond Bovino, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials Russell Hott and Daniel Parra will also be deposed this week.

Those depositions come as part of a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Headline Club, Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071, Block Club Chicago and other media organizations who’ve alleged immigration agents have engaged in a “pattern of extreme brutality” that’s part of a “concerted and ongoing effort to silence the press and civilians.”

As part of that lawsuit, Ellis entered a temporary restraining order banning federal agents from using tear gas or other “riot control weapons” against journalists, protesters and any others who do not pose an immediate threat to law enforcement.

Since Oct. 3, federal agents have fired tear gas at protesters around Chicago seven times.

Ellis appeared particularly incensed by what happened on Saturday in Old Irving Park, when federal agents deployed tear gas after residents protested their attempts to detain a construction workers.

“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes, walking to a parade, do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” Ellis said. “They just don’t.”

Ellis has also ordered Bovino himself must obtain and wear a body-worn camera after he was allegedly seen last week tossing a tear gas canister at protesters on Thursday in Little Village.

Although Bovino personally deployed tear gas, Ellis did not question him about his conduct during that day. Federal officials said Bovino fired the tear gas after he was struck in the head by objects thrown by the protestors. Bovino had no visible head injury while in court Tuesday.

Heather Cherone contributed to this report.

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