CHICAGO, IL. (AP) — Federal officials are in court in Chicago to take questions about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the region, which has produced more than 1,000 arrests as well as complaints that agents are increasingly using combative tactics.
The hearing comes a few days after a judge ordered uniformed immigration agents to wear body cameras, if available, and turn them on when engaged in arrests, frisks and building searches or when being deployed to protests.
Each Border Patrol agent who is part of Operation Midway Blitz “now has a body-worn camera,” said Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis last week said she was a “little startled” after seeing TV images of street confrontations that involved tear gas and other tactics during the immigration sweep.
“The longer we loiter on a scene and subjects come, the situation gets more and more dangerous,” Harvick testified.
