ICE Body Cameras in Chicago: Funding Needs

CHICAGO (AP) — Many federal agents assigned to immigration raids in the Chicago area have body cameras, but Congress would need to allocate more funding to expand their use, officials testified Monday during a hearing on tactics used during the Trump administration’s crackdown that has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests.

Federal Judge Sara Ellis last week ordered that uniformed officers wear cameras, whenever available, and turn them on when conducting arrests, searches and searches of buildings or when deployed for protest control. Ellis held a hearing Monday in which he questioned a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official about the operation and complaints that agents are using increasingly combative tactics.

Kyle Harvick, CBP deputy incident commander, said Border Patrol agents who are part of Operation Midway Blitz have cameras. He assured that there are 201 agents in the Chicago area.

But Shawn Byers, deputy director of ICE’s field office, said more funding from Congress would be needed to expand the use of cameras beyond two of the agency’s field offices. He said ICE agents working at a building in the suburb of Broadview — where immigrants pass through before being sent to detention elsewhere — have not used cameras. The place, on the outskirts of Chicago, has been the scene of protests that at times become tumultuous.

Byers also explained that while there are surveillance cameras outside the ICE facility, they record over previous footage every 28 days. Ellis expressed surprise when Byers stressed that this meant that footage from before September 18 had been lost. The Broadview facility became a focus for protesters after Operation Midway Blitz began in early September.

“All of that needs to be preserved,” Ellis said.

Near the end of the hearing, Ellis said he would allow lawyers to question more federal officials, including Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief who heads CBP operations in Chicago and is a key player in immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.

The hearing was the latest evidence in a lawsuit filed by news organizations and community groups witnessing protests and arrests in the Chicago area. Ellis stated earlier this month that officers must wear badges, and prohibited them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists.

Then, last Thursday, she expressed “a little surprise” to see television footage of street clashes in which officers used tear gas and other tactics.

Harvick defended the use of tear gas against protesters in a Chicago neighborhood on Oct. 12, saying residents were “not allowing officers to leave the scene.”

“The longer we stay at a scene and subjects arrive, the situation becomes more and more dangerous,” Harvick said. “And that’s a security concern, not only for my fellow Border Patrol agents, but also for the detainee and others who come out to see what’s going on.”

Media and community groups submitted five pages of proposed topics for the hearing. They covered a range of issues, from the number of agents in the Chicago area to questions about training, tactics and justification for widespread immigration raids. It is not clear what topics the judge will allow.

The government has reacted with displeasure to any suggestion of irregularities.

“The full context is that officers in Chicago have been, and continue to be, attacked, injured, and prevented from enforcing federal law,” Justice Department attorney Samuel Holt said in a court filing Friday.

Separately, President Donald Trump’s administration has been prohibited from deploying the National Guard to assist immigration agents in Illinois. That order expires Thursday unless extended. The administration has also asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment.

This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.