A federal judge has sharply criticized Kristi Noem’s Border Patrol agents for their reckless and violent tactics in a court ruling that exposes the goons’ efforts to cover up their behaviour with false accounts that the court described as “impossible to believe.”
In a blistering 233-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis lays out stark new findings based on bodycam footage and false court statements made during the course of Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration sweep.
Criticizing controversial Border Patrol lead commander Gregory Bovino, Ellis painted a picture of an operation that has spun out of control. She said they had behaved with reckless abandon before lying about it.
The judge said one video “suggests that the agent drove erratically and brake-checked other motorists in an attempt to force accidents that agents could then use as justifications for deploying force.”
She concluded: “Every minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe.”
In Evanston, Ellis described agents “driving erratically and through stop signs and red lights,” then making “a fast right turn” at a red light that set off a rear-end crash—before detaining bystanders on the pavement. One agent twice pointed a handgun at a resident who was filming and warned: “step back or I’m going to shoot you.” All three detainees were later released without charges.
Ellis wrote that video and witness accounts showed agents twisting a young man’s arm and “bashing the man’s head on the street at least two times,” while another woman was tackled to the ground without any warning to step back. Agents then pepper-sprayed the crowd.
The court also revealed, for the first time, that an agent used ChatGPT to “compile a narrative for a report” from a one-line prompt and a few images. Ellis said the AI-assisted write-up further undermined credibility when stacked against bodycam footage.
Again and again, the judge found official write-ups didn’t match the videos. Agents’ reports labeled “neighborhood moms and dads, Chicago Bears fans, people dressed in Halloween costumes, and the lawyer who lives on the block” as “professional agitators.”
During an Oct. 24 Lakeview encounter, bodycam shows agents in a white SUV hurl a tear-gas canister toward the sidewalks while the driver says to a colleague, “Hey, throw it for fun,” and another agent taunts protesters to “have fun” as the gas deploys.
About fifteen seconds later, two more canisters are tossed—even though video indicates their exit path wasn’t blocked and wind blew the agents’ own gas back into their vehicle.
The ruling also describes crowd-control weapons aimed at largely compliant neighbors and credentialed media. A CBS reporter was hit with pepper balls inside a marked press van, with other journalists saying tear gas and spray hit them as they stood well off to the side. In another sequence, an agent rolled down a window, pointed a handgun, and said “bang bang” before sneering, “You’re dead, liberal.”
Ellis also took aim once more at Bovino—the controversial Border Patrol lead commander and face of the Chicago push—finding him “evasive” over three days of testimony and, at points, “outright lying.”
Ellis’s order—since paused upon appeal from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which Secretary Noem heads up—barred agents from deploying tear gas or other munitions without two clear warnings, required activated bodycams and visible ID, and protected newsgathering from unlawful interference.
Government lawyers have depicted a volatile environment of aggressive drivers, fast-emerging threats, “spotter” networks, and the difficulty of distinguishing press from protesters in real time.
But Ellis found multiple depictions had been inflated or were unsupported by video, including crash narratives and claims that force was needed to exit scenes where egress appeared open.
Operation Midway Blitz, which moved hundreds of agents into Chicago and Illinois in early September, was given an explicit mandate to hunt “the worst of the worst.” But the court says the footage it reviewed belies that narrative—showing everyday neighbors, families in Halloween costumes, and journalists suffering tear gas, flash-bangs, and pepper rounds.
After the Chicago phase, Bovino’s motley crew last weekend moved to Charlotte, North Carolina—though only for a week. His team is next slated to redeploy to Louisiana and New Orleans on Dec. 1.
The appellate fight over Ellis’s order continues.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.
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