On Tuesday, we reported that a federal judge laid the verbal smackdown on U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino over his agents’ use of brutal and excessive tactics in Chicago, including their use of tear gas in residential areas, which the judge said violated her previous order limiting their use of such tactics. In fact, Judge Sara L. Ellis of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had gotten so sick and tired of Bovino and his goons treating her court order like it was just a suggestion that she ordered him to appear at the federal courthouse at the end of every weekday to personally provide her with a report on the day’s arrests and incidents. It’s not every day that a judge orders a top-ranked officer of the law to come to court to discuss his daily report card like a child who is failing math and science.
Unfortunately, under the Trump administration, we have a federal government that is dedicated to fighting for its legal right to violate human rights, so the U.S. Department of Justice has appealed Ellis’s order, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked it just before Bovino’s first scheduled appearance, according to ABC 7.
The only thing less surprising than the DOJ — which, time and time again, has proven itself to be firmly in the pocket of President Donald Trump since the start of his second term — appealing Ellis’ ruling is the fact that, if Bovino had to show up to court, he would have had plenty to answer for.
From ABC:
One of the incidents that could come up is one that happened in Aurora Wednesday morning, where agents appear to have pepper sprayed a woman’s vehicle with her two young children inside.
Speaking to ABC7 shortly after leaving Mercy Hospital Wednesday, Pineda, who is a member of Aurora’s rapid response team, recounted what happened shortly after she pulled into the grocery store, attracted by the whistles used to alert residents of agents’ presence in the area. She admits she was unwittingly blocking one of the agents’ vehicles in.
“He decides to back up and tell me that I need to get the **** out, or I’m going to get arrested,” Pineda said. “There’s agents coming at me. All I hear is them shooting. I thought they were hitting my windshield, I didn’t think they were actually shooting at me until everything happened.”
It was just Tuesday when Judge Ellis ordered Border Patrol Commander Bovino to make sure his agents have their body-worn cameras rolling during all encounters with the public, while also having their identifiers clearly visible on at least two locations. This comes as she seeks to enforce a temporary restraining order that forbids all federal agents participating in Operation Midway Blitz from using chemical agents when their physical safety is not in danger and without giving at least two clear warnings about what they are about to do.
“They didn’t acknowledge that my kids were in the car. I had no form of weapon in order for them to attack me how they did,” Pineda said. “No cameras were visible. No numbers were visible. They did have their badges, but I couldn’t make it out.”
And yet, on Wednesday, before the appellate court ruled in the DOJ’s favor, Bovino made an appearance on Fox News, where he claimed to welcome the daily court hearings because they would reveal the “truth” about how out of control Chicago is.
“If she wants to meet with me every day, then she’s going to see, she’s going to have a very good first-hand look at just how bad things really are on the streets of Chicago… we’ve never been in violation of any TRO, any regulation,” Bovino said. “We’re going to speed those apprehensions up, and no, we are going to go harder. We go harder now. I’m not worried about it at all.”
Certainly, he must object to the DOJ and the appeals court stepping in and putting a pause to Ellis’ order, then, right? RIGHT???
Speaking of the MAGA-fied DOJ, this week, the department indicted Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive Democrat running for an open House seat in Illinois, and at least three other political figures in the state with federal charges after they attended a protest at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center outside Chicago’s Broadview neighborhood. Abughazaleh was charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer and assaulting or impeding an officer as they engaged in official duties.
According to the indictment, Abughazaleh was among several protesters who in September allegedly surrounded a government vehicle, banged on the hood and windows and scratched the body of the car, including etching the word “PIG” into the vehicle. The indictment also alleges the protesters broke one of the vehicle’s side mirrors and a rear windshield wiper.
Video of the encounter that day, posted by Abughazaleh, showed her and protesters placing their hands on the vehicle as the agent continued to slowly drive forward into the line of protesters, with some banging on the car.
Abughazaleh is one of the more than a dozen Democratic candidates running for Congress to fill the seat now held by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who announced earlier this year that she won’t seek reelection in 2026.
In a statement, Abughazaleh called the charges “political prosecution” and a “gross attempt to silence dissent.”
“This case is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish those who dare to speak up,” Abughazaleh said, adding that the charges are “unjust.”
Other political figures named in the indictment include Catherine Sharp, a chief of staff to a Chicago alderman and a candidate for Cook County Board; Michael Rabbitt, a Chicago Democratic ward committeeman; and Brian Straw, a member of the suburban Oak Park Village board.
What the video shared by Abughazaleh appears to show is a single ICE vehicle slowly driving into a large crowd of protesters, who didn’t seem to be attacking it so much as they were standing their ground as it slowly tried to force its way through.
The attorney for Sharp, Molly Armour, called the charges “ludicrous” and said she and her client “are confident that a jury of Ms. Sharp’s peers will see them for exactly what they are: an effort by the Trump administration to frighten people out of participating in protest and exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Mind you, this is the same Department of Justice that recently placed its own prosecutors on leave for calling Jan. 6 rioters “rioters” in a legal brief, which is rich considering the Department of Homeland Security regularly calls anti-ICE protesters “rioters” even when they’re not accused of rioting.
This is also the same federal government that can’t or won’t reveal information on the whereabouts of the more than 3,000 allegedly undocumented migrants Bovino has been bragging about arresting since the start of the Chicago crackdown.
Even as arrests continue, the question is: Where are the 3,000 people? Attorneys and human rights investigators tracking them are asking where they are and, in many cases, who they are.
The whereabouts of many detainees locked up during Operation Midway Blitz remain unknown, according to organizations that have been trying to protect rights and lives.
“It is quite dire,” said attorney Mark Fleming with the National Immigrant Justice Center, an organization that is suing federal authorities in Chicago.
Fleming recently obtained a court order prohibiting warrantless arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But on Monday Fleming told the NBC Chicago investigative team that U.S. government officials won’t — or can’t — tell them where at least 3,000 arrestees are right now.
And they are not “the worst of the worst,” he said, to involve a phrase used by ICE officials to justify sweeping urban arrests.
“These are folks that have been here for decades, have long standing ties to the community, family members, employment, businesses that are all being torn apart,” Fleming said.
As we’ve reported numerous times, the Trump administration has sold its immigration crackdown as an agenda to rid the nation of “criminal illegal aliens,” but its own data shows the overwhelming majority of detainees have no criminal record at all.
According to Fox 32, protesters at the same ICE facility in Broadview are refusing to comply with an order to remove their “Yes We Canopy” tent after village officials said it violates Broadview’s public camping ordinance and must be removed by 10 a.m. Thursday. Organizers said they were preparing for a peaceful sit-in to begin at 9:30 a.m., just before the deadline. The Mutual Aid Hub, also known as the “Yes We Canopy” tent, was set up weeks ago to support families of people detained by ICE, providing them with updates on the status of their loved ones and legal resources. (Oh, the horror.)
Anyway, since immigration police agencies are running around like the new Gestapo, answering only to the authoritarian regime that is the Trump administration, it’s only fitting that we leave you with Bovino waving at an angry crowd of protesters in a manner that looks eerily similar to a Nazi salute.
Like
0
Dislike
0
Love
0
Funny
0
Angry
0
Sad
0
Wow
0
