Border Patrol official Bovino due in court to answer questions about
Chicago immigration crackdown
[October 28, 2025]
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
CHICAGO (AP) — A senior Border Patrol official who has become the face
of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and
Chicago is due in court Tuesday to take questions about the enforcement
operation in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800
arrests and complaints of excessive force.
The hearing comes after a judge earlier this month ordered uniformed
immigration agents to wear body cameras, the latest step in a lawsuit by
news outlets and protesters who say federal agents used excessive force,
including using tear gas, during protests against immigration
operations.
Greg Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California,
one of nine sectors on the Mexican border, is himself accused of
throwing tear gas canisters at protesters.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis initially said agents must wear badges,
and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against
peaceful protesters and journalists. She later said she was concerned
agents were not following her order after seeing footage of street
confrontations involving tear gas during the administration’s Operation
Midway Blitz, and she modified the order to also require body cameras.
Ellis last week extended questioning of Bovino from two hours to five
because she wants to hear about agents’ recent use of force in the
city’s Mexican enclave of Little Village. During an enforcement
operation last week in Little Village and the adjacent suburb of Cicero,
at least eight people, including four U.S. citizens, were detained
before protesters gathered at the scene, local officials said.
The attorneys representing a coalition of news outlets and protesters
claim Bovino himself violated the order in Little Village and filed a
still image of video footage where he was allegedly “throwing tear gas
into a crowd without justification.”
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino holds a
canister as he stands with federal immigration enforcement agents
during a skirmish with protesters in Little Village on Thursday,
Oct. 23, 2025 in Chicago. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times/Chicago
Sun-Times via AP)
Over the weekend, masked federal agents and unmarked SUVs were
spotted on the city’s wealthier, predominantly white North side
neighborhoods of Lakeview and Lincoln Park, where footage showed
chemical agents deployed on a residential street. Federal agents
have been seen and videotaped deploying tear gas in residential
streets a number of times over the past few weeks.
Bovino also led the immigration operation is Los Angeles in recent
months, leading to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows,
blew open a door to a house and patrolled MacArthur Park on
horseback. In Chicago, similar Border Patrol operations have led to
viral footage of tense confrontations with protesters.
At a previous hearing, Ellis questioned Kyle Harvick, deputy
incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and
Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, about their agencies' use of force policies and
the distribution of body cameras. Harvick said there are about 200
Border Patrol employees in the Chicago area, and those who are part
of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras. But Byers said more money
from Congress would be needed to expand camera use beyond two of
that agency’s field offices.
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