{"id":370462,"date":"2025-11-11T01:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/370462\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:32:12","slug":"feds-ask-appeals-court-to-halt-unworkable-restrictions-on-force-during-chicago-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/370462\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds Ask Appeals Court To Halt ‘Unworkable’ Restrictions On Force During Chicago Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 On Thursday, a federal judge issued a court order that limits federal immigration agents\u2019 use of force and crowd control tactics<\/a> in the Chicago area. Now the Trump administration is trying to block it.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday filed an emergency motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to stop the order immediately, arguing the \u201coverbroad and unworkable injunction has no basis in law, threatens the safety of federal officers, and violates the separation of powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s motion claims U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis exceeded her authority \u2014 and infringed on the powers of the executive branch \u2014 by granting the \u201csweeping\u201d order, which imposes restrictions on federal immigration agents\u2019 use of force \u201cbased solely on past incidents of alleged misconduct that they only speculate many recur.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat began as a complaint by journalists and protestors alleging that DHS officers targeted them with crowd-control devices at a handful of protests in September and early October has transformed into an instrument for judicial micromanagement of federal law-enforcement operations in the Chicago area,\u201d the motion reads.<\/p>\n

The appeal is the latest in an ongoing lawsuit<\/a> filed to protect the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters and journalists from tear gas, pepper balls and other uses of force. Block Club Chicago is a plaintiff along with other media organizations and journalists.<\/p>\n

At a key hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis granted an injunction in the lawsuit<\/a>, which means the temporary restraining order she issued last month<\/a> will remain in place until a full trial takes place or a settlement is reached.<\/p>\n

The extended order limits federal immigration agents\u2019 uses of force except when they\u2019re faced with violence themselves. It also mandates that agents wear badges or display other visible identification and requires that most agents use body cameras.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, looks on in Broadview on Sept. 19, 2025. Credit: Charles Thrush\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n

In her ruling, Ellis gave a litany of examples of federal immigration agents\u2019 using excessive force against rapid responders, neighbors, clergy and bystanders as well as other protesters and journalists in neighborhoods across the city and in the suburbs. <\/p>\n

Ellis also cited instances when the claims of federal authorities didn\u2019t hold up. She said Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, leader of the immigration crackdown in Chicago, admitted to lying when he claimed he was hit by a rock before tear-gassing people in Little Village last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The federal government has said agents have used justified force to respond to \u201crioters,\u201d \u201cagitators\u201d and violence. But Ellis said she couldn\u2019t find any evidence of \u201cviolent rioters\u201d in Chicago in the 500 hours of body camera footage and videos provided by government attorneys.<\/p>\n

In her ruling, Ellis read Carl Sandburg\u2019s poem \u201cChicago\u201d aloud and described the city as a place \u201cbrimming with vitality and hope\u201d as it works to move past a history that includes segregation and violence, with \u201ceveryday people standing watch to protect the most vulnerable among us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government would have people believe, instead, that the Chicagoland area is in a vise-hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cThat simply is untrue. And the government\u2019s own evidence in this case belies that assertion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reviewing all of the evidence submitted and listening to the testimony, I find the defendants\u2019 evidence simply not credible.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their latest filing, government attorneys asked the appeals court to halt Ellis\u2019 order while the case proceeds, saying it puts the district judge \u201cin the untenable position of superintending day-to-day law-enforcement activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the plaintiffs responded with their own filing to the appeals court, arguing that the government failed to show any sudden \u201cemergency\u201d that would justify stopping Ellis\u2019 order.<\/p>\n

Federal government officials \u201chave stated repeatedly \u2014 including during arguments and under oath \u2014\u00a0that their operations are not hindered by complying with the injunctive relief that the district court has ordered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorneys also highlighted that Ellis found federal immigration authorities have \u201coutright lied\u201d on multiple occasions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, Defendants did not tell the truth under oath during sworn testimony in the case,\u201d the plaintiffs wrote in their filing. \u201cThis Court should not intervene in a manner that inures to the benefit of executive actors acting lawlessly and disrespecting judicial authority.\u201d <\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 On Thursday, a federal judge issued a court order that limits federal immigration agents\u2019 use of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":370463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-370462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-immigration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115528489442337738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}