The Department of Homeland Security defended using tear gas in Little Village Thursday, saying Friday that its agents were surrounded by protesters who hit Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino in the head with a rock.
Agents deployed tear gas at a crowd near the iconic Discount Mall. Border Patrol released a statement after a civil rights law firm alleged Bovino violated “multiple paragraphs” of a restraining order entered by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis who restricted when and how tear gas can be deployed by immigration officials when dealing with media and protesters.
The law firm released a photo that appeared to show Bovino, who according to recent testimony is the head official leading “Operation Midway Blitz,” personally throwing tear gas toward a crowd of residents who chided and jeered the federal agents.
In the statement, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Border Patrol agents were near 27th Street and Whipple Ave when they were surrounded by a large crowd of “75 to 100” people she called “rioters” that boxed them in. Those people also “shot at agents with commercial artillery shell fireworks,” she said.
Agents secured a transport van at the scene but the crowd grew more hostile and “began throwing rocks and other objects at agents, including one that struck Chief Greg Bovino in the head.”
She said the agents issued warnings and the use of tear gas “was necessary to ensure the safety of both law enforcement and the public.”
No one at DHS has fielded questions about the incident but Bovino will have to testify about it under oath in an upcoming deposition about potential violations of a federal judge’s restraining order.
The credibility of federal officials has been questioned repeatedly amid the Trump administration’s Operations Midway Blitz, including by U.S. District Judge April Perry who recently said the federal government has a credibility problem that made many of their claims “unreliable.”
Federal immigration officials were in Little Village — a Southwest Side neighborhood that is home to Chicago’s largest Mexican American population — on Thursday for the second time in two days. Half a dozen people were detained in the raids Thursday, including a 16-year-old U.S. citizen, a student at Benito Juárez Community Academy in the Pilsen neighborhood. At least seven people were also taken into custody Wednesday.
Video footage reviewed by the Tribune shows immigration agents by the Discount Mall, near 26th and Albany, being confronted by onlookers after they arrived Thursday. The shopping center, located next to the neighborhood’s arch, is known for its wide variety of goods — many of which are imported from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
The mall has served as the community’s social and commercial heart for decades, which heightened tensions surrounding the presence of immigration enforcement.