A federal judge took an unprecedented step in overseeing the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown throughout the Chicago area.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, appointed to the bench in Illinois by the Obama administration, ordered Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino on Tuesday to report to her daily over immigration enforcement operations in The Windy City, according to multiple reports. The order follows sweeping immigration raids across the city as the Trump administration seeks to remove criminal illegal migrants around the country.
“Mr. Bovino’s going to be here every day at 6 to tell me what happened,” Ellis said, declaring that the meetings would take place every weekday, according to Politico.
“My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress,” the Obama judge said. “My role is simply to see that any enforcement of those laws is done in a manner that is consistent with your obligations under the law.”
The Trump administration officially launched Operation Midway Blitz in early September, with the stated goal of locating and arresting illegal migrants that have been protected by Chicago’s and Illinois’ sanctuary policies.
The Trump administration — which already conducted large-scale illegal migrant crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., — has since focused on The Windy City by deploying federal immigration authorities from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court earlier in October to allow the deployment of National Guard members into Chicago after a lower court blocked the action.
“In recent weeks, federal officers in Chicago have been threatened and assaulted, attacked in a harrowing pre-planned ambush involving many assailants, rammed in their government vehicles, shot at with fireworks and other improvised weapons, injured and hospitalized, and threatened in person and online — including by a $10,000 bounty for the murder of a senior federal official,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the administration’s application, arguing that the National Guard is needed to help federal immigration agents.
In the meantime, opponent’s of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda have waged stiff opposition to ICE’s and Border Patrol’s presence in Chicago. Ellis is presiding over a court challenge waged by local residents who claim they were endangered by the use of chemical agents by law enforcement.
“I’ve been a lawyer for almost 50 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Phillip Turner, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, said to the Associated Press about the federal judge’s demand for Bovino to report to her every single weekday.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pointed to statements made on social media that indicate violent rioters in Chicago are putting law enforcement agents in danger, such as when a group of 75 to 100 rioters surrounded law enforcement earlier in October and allegedly shot at agents with commercial artillery shell fireworks. The administration indicated that Bovino promptly got back to targeting illegal migrant criminals after Tuesday’s court hearing.
“As soon as he left the courthouse, he was immediately on an operation to remove violent criminals from the streets of Illinois,” a DHS spokesperson said to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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