U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis wants the ICE official to explain «why I am seeing images of tear gas … and reading reports that there were no warnings given.» A Trump lawyer says the reports are inaccurate.
A week ago, a federal judge forbade agents from using gas and other “riot control” weapons without warning in Chicago as they carried out President Donald Trump’s deportation blitz.
That same judge took the bench early Thursday at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where she told one of Trump’s lawyers, bluntly, “I’m not blind.”
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis cited reports in the Chicago Sun-Times and other media that have given her “serious concerns” about whether the Trump administration has followed her order in recent days.
Then she insisted that Russell Hott, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Chicago field office, appear in her courtroom Monday to clarify what’s going on.
“The field director is going to explain to me why I am seeing images of tear gas being deployed and reading reports that there were no warnings given before it was deployed,” Ellis said.
Ellis also said she would be modifying the temporary restraining order she entered last week to require body cameras on ICE agents carrying out Trump’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz.” The details of that modification still needed to be ironed out Thursday morning.
Though the judge called the early morning hearing herself, the case has been closely watched following the use of tear gas Sunday in Albany Park and in a residential neighborhood on the Southeast Side on Tuesday following a chase where federal agents rammed an SUV.
