7th Circuit Pauses Daily Oversight of Border Chief

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Customs and Border Protection Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino to wear a body camera and report to court daily to provide real-time updates on Chicago-area immigration enforcement amid allegations that agents have used tear gas and other crowd-control weapons in residential neighborhoods. The Department of Justice appealed the order hours before Bovino’s first scheduled check-in, and the 7th Circuit temporarily paused the requirement that he appear every day. The oversight directive grew out of incidents during the Trump-era “Operation Midway Blitz,” including videos and complaints of pepper-spray or pepper-bullet strikes on civilians (one incident in Aurora involved a woman and two young children) and a recorded Old Irving Park encounter; plaintiffs are seeking a court order to bar tear gas pending an injunction hearing set for Nov. 5. DHS and Bovino have defended agents’ actions, releasing footage they say shows agents under attack, while critics call the judge’s daily-supervision step unprecedented micromanagement of law enforcement.