A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a ruling that limited how federal immigration agents could use force in Illinois. The appellate judges described restrictions imposed by a lower-court judge as “overbroad” and “too prescriptive,” giving at least a temporary victory to Trump administration officials.
The three-judge appellate panel, made up of Republican appointees, said Judge Sara L. Ellis had erred this month when she granted a wide-ranging preliminary injunction requiring agents to wear body cameras, to give warnings before using riot control weapons, including tear gas, and to use those weapons only in dire circumstances.
The case was brought by media organizations, protesters and clergy members who accused federal agents of “a pattern of extreme brutality” intended to “silence the press and civilians” during the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area. That crackdown, which led to thousands of arrests and repeated clashes between federal agents and demonstrators since early September, appears to have slowed in recent days as federal officials began carrying out new immigration operations in North Carolina.
Judge Ellis, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, had expressed alarm about how federal agents were using tear gas and physical force during their work, saying “the use of force shocks the conscience.”
“I see little reason for the use of force that the federal agents are currently using,” Judge Ellis, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, said earlier this month.
The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago, said Judge Ellis had gone too far in her order and had infringed on the separation of powers. That panel, made up of two judges nominated by President Trump and another nominated by President Ronald Reagan, said Judge Ellis’s injunction “enumerates and proscribes the use of scores of riot control weapons and other devices in a way that resembles a federal regulation.”
Seventh Circuit judges had previously blocked Judge Ellis from requiring Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official, from appearing in her courtroom each weekday to discuss the agents’ tactics.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling on Wednesday, which stayed Judge Ellis’s injunction pending an appeal, is not the final word on the case.
The appellate judges left open the possibility that the evidence “may support entry of a more tailored and appropriate preliminary injunction that directly addresses the First and Fourth Amendment claims raised by these plaintiffs.”
Judge Ellis was one of several federal judges in Chicago who expressed alarm about actions during the immigration crackdown. One judge voiced concerns about what he considered “unnecessarily cruel” conditions inside an immigration detention center and ordered the government to make improvements. Another temporarily blocked Mr. Trump from deploying National Guard troops over the governor’s objections, and another ordered that hundreds of immigrants who were arrested be released on bond.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended its work in Illinois, arguing that agents’ tactics were reasonable, that the National Guard deployment was legal and that conditions at the detention center were acceptable. They have also cited acts of aggression toward agents, including an incident in Chicago this month in which they said shots were fired at Border Patrol agents.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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