Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras, a judge said Thursday after seeing tear gas and other aggressive steps used against protesters.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said she was a “little startled” after seeing TV images of clashes between agents and the public during President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown.
“I live in Chicago if folks haven’t noticed,” she said. “And I’m not blind, right?”
Every win matters. It’s so important to see sensible judges.
Ellis last week said agents in the area must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists.
“I’m having concerns about my order being followed,” the judge said.
“I am adding that all agents who are operating in Operation Midway Blitz are to wear body-worn cameras, and they are to be on,” Ellis said, referring to the government’s name for the crackdown.
So, to be clear, if you are assaulted by a person or person who is not wearing a badge and a camera, you should be well within your rights to use whatever force is necessary to defend yourself. Right?
I could easily be a copycat criminal posing as a plainclothes ICE agent trying to rob you…WAIT, both of them are trying to rob you.
One of them just wants to take your money. The other one wants to take your freedom
Great, so they’ll just shut down operation Midway blitz, and start a new operation with some other new name. Presto!
Yes. But you will have to defend that in court (if you get that far).
Yup and they can respond with force.
Can and will, I assume.
"and they are to be on,” Ellis said
Also said that if they don’t have cameras they wouldn’t be expected to use something they don’t have (yet) but they would talk about it Monday.
So they will eventually be wearing cameras, but there is no timeline for when.
Cue boondoggle contract bidding, as per usual.
When pigs fly.
I feel like the wording the judge used was to prevent some fucked up legal monkey paw scenerio. Somehow they’ll try to get around it I’m sure.
After finally agreeing to the conditions, they absolutely would have left the cameras off if the judge did not include that requirement. We will probably soon see body cams with the recording light blinking and tape completely covering the lens. “bEcAuSe YoU dIdN’t SaY wE cOuLdN’t CoVeR tHe LeNs”
"and they are to be on [fleek],” Ellis said
If all cops nationwide are wearing body cameras, it makes no sense that federal officers, who are behaving as police, are not also wearing them.
It also makes no sense they are plain clothed and masked. But I think the point is to be lawless.
The fucking self checkout attendant at Walmart is wearing a body camera there is no excuse for “law “enforcement”” not to
So their just criminals if they don’t? Who is going to arrest them?
The federal agencies this year have shown repeatedly in court their testimony is unreliable. In future cases, if the cameras were deliberately disabled or obscured or were available but ‘forgotten’ to be worn, and it’s one party’s word against the other, judges may side against the federal government more often.
There’s a very easy way to prevent that; add a rule that any claim made against an officer without a working body cam is presumed to be true, and the officer’s contracting testimony isn’t relevant. If they don’t want people lying about their conduct, they’re given the equipment to protect themselves, and responsible for ensuring it’s functioning.
If those ICE agents were legally accountable, they’d be very upset.
They will never show the video but nice idea.
Thanks for your opinion. 😉
A “requirement to wear a body camera” doesn’t mean much if there are no penalties for “forgetting to turn it on” or “forgetting to charge the battery” or “whoops I guess it broke and I didn’t know”… which happens all the fucking time.
2026 headline:
“judge orders ICE to keep beatings below 10 minutes or 50 punches - whichever comes first”
Right, body cams are the issue, not that this is fucking happening in the first place.
Like legal means anything.
