Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official, appeared to lob a tear-gas canister into an irate crowd of Chicago residents on Thursday, videos showed, during a chaotic confrontation between the public and Border Patrol agents in the Little Village neighborhood.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over tactics federal agents have used during an illegal immigration crackdown in the Chicago area said that Mr. Bovino had violated a court order by “apparently throwing tear gas into a crowd without justification.”
This month, a coalition of media organizations, protesters and clergy members filed the lawsuit, which accused agents of “a pattern of extreme brutality” intended to “silence the press and civilians.”
Judge Sara L. Ellis of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had previously issued an order banning federal immigration agents from deploying tear gas and other chemical agents on a crowd without two warnings. She also banned agents from “deploying these weapons above the head of the crowd” in most situations. The judge’s order left room for exceptions in cases where issuing such warnings was not feasible or if someone posed a serious threat to officers or others.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The confrontation on Thursday in a busy shopping district in Little Village, on the city’s Southwest Side, came more than six weeks into what federal officials have called Operation Midway Blitz, a crackdown that the officials have said is intended to target illegal immigration. The effort has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests, but has drawn sharp criticism from Chicagoans, as agents have detained people, including U.S. citizens, sometimes for hours, with no charges.
Federal immigration agents have conducted operations on busy city streets, often questioning Latino residents who have told them that they are U.S. citizens or legal residents. During arrests of unauthorized immigrants, neighbors and bystanders have confronted agents, sometimes shouting profanities and insults, and often capturing the confrontations on cellphone videos. Agents have routinely used tear gas and pepper balls to try to disperse crowds.
In an effort to rein in the actions of agents, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, established an “accountability commission” this week that he says will monitor and track the Trump administration’s actions in the state.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Bovino, the Border Patrol official who has been leading this year’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles, and federal agents tried to enter a parking lot of a mall in Little Village. A security guard stopped them and asked for a warrant before entry, said Byron Sigcho-Lopez, a City Council member who represents the neighborhood.
Agents arrested the security guard, Mr. Sigcho-Lopez said, which attracted the attention of bystanders. It was uncertain what the guard was accused of.
The crowd quickly grew to more than 100 people, who gathered around the agents and their cars, calling them “kidnappers” and “terrorists” and using expletives as they drew closer to them.
“Get out of Chicago!” several people at the scene yelled.
Mr. Sigcho-Lopez said he confronted Mr. Bovino at the scene and warned him that he was not allowed to use tear gas without proper warning.
“They were told not to do that,” Mr. Sigcho-Lopez said. “They’re trying to escalate, they’re trying to provoke.”
After tear gas was deployed in Little Village, federal agents got back into their black S.U.V.s while Chicago police officers who had responded to the scene blocked the crowd from coming closer.
As the vehicles began to drive away, one woman threw an object at the window of a Border Patrol vehicle, cracking it with a loud thud.
Mattathias Schwartz contributed reporting.
Julie Bosman is the Chicago bureau chief for The Times, writing and reporting stories from around the Midwest.
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