(CHICAGO) — A federal judge is set to hear arguments Wednesday and is weighing extending restrictions on the use of force by federal immigration agents in the Chicago area.
Attorneys representing journalists, clergymen and protesters who say they’ve been harmed by federal immigration agents during lawful protests are expected to show images and call on witnesses they say prove the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are “increasingly reckless and dangerous.”
Videos of several violent immigration arrests and clashes between federal agents and protesters in the region have become a flashpoint in the nation’s debate over immigration enforcement. But the Department of Homeland Security says their agents have been harassed and followed by violent protesters and are responding appropriately to a 1,000%-increase in attacks on agents across the United States.
“Although some protests remained peaceful, others turned violent,” the government claimed in court filings. “Rioters have attacked law enforcement personnel with fireworks, rocks, and other objects. Rioters also breached the perimeter of federal buildings, blocked all traffic into the only immigration facility in the region, damaged federal vehicles, and injured officers. At some violent protests, officers responded by issuing dispersal orders and using nonlethal crowd-control devices.”
In October, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issued a temporary restraining order restricting federal agents from “using riot control weapons” against journalists, protesters and religious practitioners without first issuing warnings unless necessary to stop “an immediate and serious threat of physical harm” to agents or others.
Ellis also prohibited agents from “dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, threatening or using physical force” against anyone they should reasonably know is a journalist. The judge expanded the order on Oct. 16 to include a requirement for federal agents equipped with body-worn cameras to wear them and keep them on during “law enforcement activities” in the Chicago region. That order is set to expire on Thursday, Nov. 6.
But in recent weeks, plaintiffs in the case have provided several accounts, often caught on tape, of incidents they say are evidence that DHS is violating her court order. Attorneys submitted video from an incident in Evanston, IL last Friday which allegedly showed agents clashing with protesters and individuals involved in a collision with a government vehicle.
Videos taken of the incident showed a federal agent pressing a man’s head to the ground for nearly two minutes as the man yelled “I can’t breathe.” In one declaration submitted in court, an eyewitness who took a video of the incident said she saw a federal agent “bash his head on the street at least two times.” The eyewitness said she then saw the agent “strike the young man in his head with his hand or fist at least two times.”
Another declarant, David Brooks, who filmed the incident said a Border Patrol agent pointed a pistol at him.
“Step back or I’m going to shoot you,” the agent allegedly told Brooks.
“I took a step back and said ‘you’re gonna what,’” Brooks wrote.
“He then pulled out his pistol from his holster and pointed it directly at me. I was startled and stepped back again. He holstered the gun,” he added in his declaration.
In a statement about the Evanston incident, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said agents were being “aggressively tailgated” by a vehicle that crashed into them.
“A hostile crowd then surrounded agents and their vehicle and began verbally abusing them and spitting on them. One physically assaulted a Border Patrol agent and kicked an agent. As he was being arrested, he grabbed the agents’ genitals and squeezed them. As you know this is an extremely painful experience for most human beings and justifies certain responses, the agent delivered several defensive strikes to the agitator to free his genitals from the agitator’s vice,” she said.
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