Crime & Law
Chicago Attorneys Abruptly Drop Lawsuit in Case Over Federal Immigration Agents’ Use of Force
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent takes part in an early morning operation in Park Ridge, Ill., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)
Attorneys representing the Chicago Headline Club and local journalists who fought for a broad injunction limiting federal agents’ use of force have abruptly moved to dismiss their lawsuit as the Trump administration’s vastly increased immigration efforts across Illinois appear to have “ended.”
In a three-page filing, attorneys representing the Chicago Headline Club, Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071, Block Club Chicago and other media organizations said now that Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino and scores of federal immigration agents have left the Chicago area, “the situation that precipitated the relief sought in this litigation has changed in a material way.”
“Specifically, it appears that Operation Midway Blitz, has ended,” they wrote. “The roughly 200-225 DHS agents led by Defendant Bovino who traveled from Los Angeles to the Chicagoland area are no longer operating in the Northern District of Illinois. Moreover, since Defendant Bovino and his agents left the Northern District, Plaintiffs’ counsel has not received a single report of unconstitutional behavior that necessitated this case since November 8, 2025.”
The lawsuit was filed after journalists, protesters and clergy members claimed they had been targeted by federal immigration agents, who subjected them to a “pattern of extreme brutality” through their usage of riot control weapons without justification.
Finding that federal immigration enforcement agents repeatedly used force that “shocks the conscience” and then lied about their actions, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis issued a sweeping preliminary injunction as part of that lawsuit designed to permanently rein in agents’ use of tear gas, pepper balls and other crowd control measures.
Witnesses in her courtroom testified during a daylong hearing last month about agents pointing firearms at them without provocation, being hit with pepper balls or tear gas and threatened simply for documenting immigration detentions.
Ellis repeatedly said that federal agents, including Bovino, lied about the threat posed by protesters and their conduct on the streets of Chicago. Federal agents “indiscriminately” fired tear gas at Chicagoans, tackled them, beat them, struck them with pepper balls and pointed weapons at them, she found.
The Department of Justice has since appealed that injunction, calling it “overbroad and unworkable” and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has already agreed to stay Ellis’ order, finding 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.”
According to Tuesday’s filing, the DOJ plans to drop its appeal should Ellis grant the dismissal request.
“Class Counsel agree that a dismissal with prejudice at this stage is fair and reasonable,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote. “With the Defendants no longer participating in Operation Midway Blitz, or other similar conduct under any moniker or other mission title in this District, this case is no longer needed to protect Class Members’ interests.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Heather Cherone contributed to this report.
Note: Loevy and Loevy, the firm that filed the suit, has done legal work for WTTW News.
