Crime & Law

Appeals Court Halts Sweeping Order that Restricts Immigration Agents’ Use of Force Around Chicago

A federal appeals court has paused a sweeping order that restricts federal immigration agents’ use of force across Chicago and the suburbs following a series of aggressive raids led by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed to stay an order issued by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis that sought to rein in agents’ use of tear gas, pepper balls and other crowd control measures against protesters, journalists and others.

The court called Ellis “overbroad” and said it would enjoin “an expansive range of defendants” including President Donald Trump, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security and anyone “acting in concert with them.”

“The practical effect,” the court wrote, “is to enjoin all law enforcement officers within the Executive Branch.”

The injunction came 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.”

Ellis issued the preliminary injunction earlier this month, ordering federal agents to only use force when it is “objectively necessary to stop an immediate threat of the person causing serious bodily injury or death to another person,” and that requiring that two separate warnings be given before force is used.

Witnesses in her courtroom testified during a daylong hearing about agents pointing firearms at them without provocation, being hit with pepper balls or tear gas and threatened simply for documenting immigration detentions.

Ellis said the force used by federal immigration agents in and around Chicago during the Trump administration’s “Midway Blitz” enforcement operation “shocks the conscience” and “shows no sign of stopping.”

The Department of Justice appealed that order days later and asked the Seventh Circuit to grant a stay, arguing the injunction was “overbroad and unworkable.”

This also marks the second time in recent weeks the Seventh Circuit has stayed one of Ellis’ orders.

After she required Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino to attend daily check-ins with her at Chicago’s federal courthouse, the court stepped in at the DOJ’s request late last month to put that order on hold.

Since Ellis’ injunction was imposed, federal immigration agents, including Bovino, have left Chicago and begun operations elsewhere.

The Seventh Circuit noted this change in its decision, citing reporting that the “enhanced immigration enforcement initiative may have lessened or ceased,” which the court said could “affect both the justiciability of this case and the propriety of injunctive relief.”

The court said it intends to set an expedited briefing schedule and oral argument date on the DOJ’s appeal of the injunction.

Despite the stay, the court warned not to “overread today’s order.”

“Our concerns about the substantial overbreadth of the district court’s injunction lead us to stay it pending appeal, which we will expedite,” the court wrote. “But we have not concluded that preliminary relief is precluded.”

Note: Loevy and Loevy, the firm that filed the suit, has done legal work for WTTW News.

---