Appeals court blocks order requiring Bovino to brief judge on Chicago
immigration sweeps
[October 30, 2025]
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
CHICAGO (AP) — An appeals court intervened Wednesday and suddenly
blocked an order that required a senior Border Patrol official to give
unprecedented daily briefings to a judge about immigration sweeps in
Chicago.
The one-page suspension by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came
before Greg Bovino’s first late-afternoon meeting with U.S. District
Judge Sara Ellis at the courthouse in downtown Chicago.
Ellis ordered the meetings Tuesday after weeks of tense encounters and
increasingly aggressive tactics by government agents working Operation
Midway Blitz, which has resulted in more than 1,800 arrests and
complaints of excessive force.
Bovino told Fox News that he was eager to talk to Ellis. But government
lawyers were appealing her decision at the same time, calling it
“extraordinarily disruptive.”
“The order significantly interferes with the quintessentially executive
function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced
by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a
daily basis,” the Justice Department argued.
“We are thrilled this act of judicial overreach has been paused,” the
Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to The Associated
Press.
Attorneys still met with Ellis in the evening to discuss logistics in
the evidence-gathering phase of the case. They agreed to a 9 p.m.
deadline to submit body camera recordings of federal agents using tear
gas on people in the predominantly Mexican American neighborhood of
Little Village last week.
Judge troubled by tear gas
Lawyers for news outlets and activists whose lawsuit alleging excessive
force by agents in and around Chicago prompted the judge to order the
briefings from Bovino have until 5 p.m. Thursday to respond in the
appeals court.
Ellis' order followed the use of tear gas in a neighborhood where
children gathered for a Halloween parade last weekend on Chicago's
Northwest Side. Neighbors joined in the street as someone was arrested.
“Halloween is on Friday,” the judge said Tuesday. “I do not want to get
violation reports from the plaintiffs that show that agents are out and
about on Halloween, where kids are present and tear gas is being
deployed.”
Bovino defended agents' actions.
“If she wants to meet with me every day, then she’s going to see, she’s
going to have a very good firsthand look at just how bad things really
are on the streets of Chicago,” Bovino told Fox News. “I look forward to
meeting with that judge to show her exactly what’s happening and the
extreme amount of violence perpetrated against law enforcement here.”
Related cases in many courts
Meanwhile prosecutors filed charges against Kat Abughazaleh, a
Democratic congressional candidate, and five other people over protests
at an immigration enforcement building in Broadview, outside Chicago.
The indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses them of illegally blocking an
agent's car on Sept. 26.
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U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Gregory Bovino arrives outside
federal court in Chicago, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y.
Huh)
Abughazaleh called the prosecution an “attempt to silence dissent.”
The Chicago court actions came as groups and officials across the
country have filed lawsuits aimed at restricting federal deployments
of National Guard troops.
President Donald Trump's administration will remain blocked from
deploying troops in the Chicago area until at least the latter half
of November, following a U.S. Supreme Court order Wednesday calling
on the parties to file additional legal briefs.
The justices indicated that they would not act before Nov. 17 on the
administration's emergency appeal to overturn a lower-court ruling
blocking the deployments.
In Portland, Oregon, a federal trial seeking to block a troop
deployment got underway Wednesday morning with a police commander
describing on the witness stand how federal agents at a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement building repeatedly fired tear
gas at nonviolent protesters.
Judge wants real-time updates
In Chicago, Bovino, who is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El
Centro, California, was to sit for daily 5:45 p.m. briefings to
report how his agents are enforcing the law and whether they are
staying within constitutional bounds, Ellis said. The check-ins were
to take place until a Nov. 5 hearing.
Ellis also demanded that Bovino produce all use-of-force reports
since Sept. 2 from agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz.
The judge expressed confidence Tuesday that the check-ins would
prevent excessive use of force in Chicago neighborhoods.
Ellis previously ordered agents to wear badges and has banned them
from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful
protesters and journalists. She subsequently required body cameras
after the use of tear gas raised concerns that agents were not
following her initial order.
Ellis set a Friday deadline for Bovino to get a camera and to
complete training.
Lawyers for the government have repeatedly defended the actions of
agents, including those from ICE, and told the judge that videos and
other portrayals of enforcement actions have been one-sided.
Bovino still must sit for a videotaped Thursday deposition, an
interview in private, with lawyers from both sides.
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