Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino praised Chicago and Evanston police departments for “assistance” on Wednesday as he and federal immigration agents drove through Chicago and the suburbs, prompting elected officials and residents to criticize police for alleged cooperation.
Chicago and Evanston police denied helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement as Bovino and his agents drove around for hours, appearing to make few arrests on their second day of the enforcement surge.As they drove into Edgewater on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Chicago police officers had stopped a man who was trailing Bovino and a convoy of agents and livestreaming on social media. Police said they were responding to a call from a federal agent who said another vehicle was “attempting to ram them.”
At a Home Depot in Evanston afterward, Bovino told the Tribune that “luckily we’re, for the first time, receiving some assistance from both Chicago PD and Evanston Police Department.”
“I think probably they’re learning a little bit from Louisiana how an orderly safe enforcement action works, and this what we’re after, is an orderly safe enforcement action,” Bovino said.
Although Bovino did not say what kind of assistance police gave them, Chicago’s self-declared “sanctuary city” status and the Illinois TRUST Act both generally prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from assisting federal agents with immigration enforcement.
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, who represents the North Side ward where Chicago police pulled over the driver, said her office has received “numerous” calls from constituents outraged by the video footage on social media. She is too.
“That’s within our right to (film) … and so it bothers me that there was an interaction then with CPD that seemed, it didn’t seem warranted,” Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, said before sharing her disgust with Bovino’s return.
“I think that we cannot be in a place where he feels welcomed here in the city of Chicago,” she said. “We don’t want him here. We don’t need him. … So he should not get comfortable here.”
At the Home Depot parking lot, Bovino argued with Evanston Mayor and congressional candidate Daniel Biss about whether the agents had a warrant to conduct arrests. Roughly 100 protesters chanted “shame” and blew whistles as agents loaded a man in a black hoodie into one of their vans. Residents also showed up to protest officers at a gas station earlier in the day.
“You are not authorized to remove our residents without any warrant,” Biss said.
“I am. They’re not residents. They’re illegal aliens, that’s not a resident,” Bovino replied. “Don’t use that type of language, Mr. Mayor, that’s the wrong language.”
Evanston police officers directed traffic out of the parking lot, appearing to slow the progress of civilian cars. Biss said, however, that he didn’t personally see Evanston police blocking residents from protesting. He said police don’t help or facilitate the agents’ actions, rather that they “keep the peace.”
“I think it’s important in these volatile environments to have actual law enforcement who are interested in public safety, like EPD, as opposed to the ICE and CBP folks,” Biss told the Tribune. “It’s a tragedy that they’re keeping people safe from our federal government.”
To the Tribune, Bovino called the crowd of protesters a “mob.” He said he’s here for the “taxpayer Ma and Pa America” for a “legal, ethical and moral mission.”
Wednesday marks the second day in a row that masked federal immigration agents combed the city and suburbs in a return show of force. There were numerous reports of activity in the northwest and west suburbs. A federal source told the Tribune that at least 100 agents, Bovino included, were active in the Chicago area for its latest wave of enforcement activity, which comes about a month after the Border Patrol chief and scores of agents left town.
Although the Department of Homeland Security has declined to comment on any specific operations, it appeared Bovino’s latest stint in Chicago won’t last as long as his first. Several local federal law enforcement sources told the Tribune that the latest surge of Border Patrol agents are expected to be in Chicago for only a few days. Other immigration sources said the deployment would be for a week or two. DHS said in an emailed statement only that operations are “ongoing.”
As winter approached, many agents left for crackdowns in other cities, including Charlotte, North Carolina, and New Orleans.
During the two-month Operation Midway Blitz, which began the first weekend of September, DHS has said it arrested more than 4,300 but has not offered more detailed figures on the backgrounds of detainees. More data of many of the arrests, both obtained by the Tribune and as part of a federal lawsuit, indicate that most detainees do not have significant criminal records.
Before the convoy made it to Evanston on Wednesday, Chicago police officers cut off Omar Luna, who was narrating as he followed the convoy of agents from Bedford Park to Cicero to the Stevenson Expressway and ultimately Lake Shore Drive, preventing him from continuing his pursuit. At the north end of Lake Shore Drive on Hollywood Avenue, he abruptly announces, “the police is coming,” the video shows.
Luna, a U.S. citizen born in Mexico, lives on the South Side and became a citizen about a decade ago, he said. At least three Chicago police vehicles pulled up ahead of Luna’s vehicle, preventing him from driving.
“They’re going to want to chase us off,” he said in Spanish.
Luna told the Tribune that the Chicago cop who pulled him over said Border Patrol called police to accuse him of attempting to ram them, an allegation he denied.
“We follow them to alert people,” Luna said. “I have never injured them or tried to crash into them.”
The officer also told Luna he can’t drive with a phone in his hand, according to Luna, who said to give him a ticket for the infraction. The officer didn’t give him a ticket but rather gave him an investigation receipt, he said.
Chicago police said in a statement that a federal agent called in to say another vehicle was “attempting to ram them.” The department said officers located and stopped the vehicle to obtain further information. After speaking with Luna, police said he was able to leave.
“A preliminary review of this incident shows CPD only responded to the call they received regarding potential criminal action,” the statement said. “An internal review to ensure responding officers were in compliance with department policy continues.”
The Chicago Police Department’s role in Trump’s immigration crackdown has been an ongoing source of contention, with both conservatives and progressives upset at how local cops are responding. Chicago Superintendent Larry Snelling, appointed by Johnson two years ago, has had to grapple with a tricky balance — officers may not assist federal immigration authorities with their operations, but are still obligated to respond to enforce the law and respond to potential illegal action.
“We have to be politically neutral if we want to enforce the law,” Snelling said in October. “In law enforcement, we don’t make the laws, we uphold them.”
His remarks followed uproar over his department’s role in the aftermath of two alleged hit-and-runs and a shooting on Chicago’s Southwest Side that involved federal agents. Chief of Patrol Jon Hein had issued a dispatch that “no units would respond” to a call for assistance from armed Border Patrol agents who said they were in the middle of a crowd in Brighton Park.
The message quickly got picked up on social media by right-wing commentators and Trump administration officials. Snelling at the time denied that officers had been told to stand down before saying, “I will say there was a lot of miscommunication, back and forth about what was really happening out there on the ground, and we need to do better.”
On the flip side, progressives have charged that Chicago police are violating the sanctuary city ordinance by assisting in traffic and crowd control, thereby helping federal agents with their duties. A violent June 4 protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in the South Loop led the Latino Caucus to demand Johnson review the Police Department protocol.
The mayor for his part defended the Police Department’s role, telling reporters in July, “They did not show up to cooperate with ICE. It’s not what they did.”
Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza deferred comment Wednesday to the Police Department. DHS also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Luna was critical of the police response and noted they don’t intervene to help residents who are harmed by federal agents.
“If citizens call the police, they won’t defend us,” Luna said. “How many citizens have been arrested and detained? Who defends us as U.S. citizens?”
Much of Bovino’s operation appears made-for-television. Agents made several arrests, including at a supermarket parking lot and tamale stand. They also spent much of their time goading residents and protesters who confronted them in city streets and in car caravans.
Bovino told a group of reporters and angry neighbors on a street corner that “we never left.” He ignored a man who asked him for a “rational conversation.”
“All right guys. Merry Christmas if I don’t see you again,” Bovino said, as he walked away from the crowd Tuesday. Later, at a gas station in Forest Park, he said “We love Chica-ho-ho-ho” as bystanders blared their horns and shouted insults, a video on social media showed.
Unlike in the fall, Bovino isn’t currently under any federal court monitoring, as both a consent decree governing “warrantless” immigration arrests and an injunction limiting the use of force against protesters and the media have been stayed pending further litigation.
Chicago Tribune’s Jason Meisner, Laura Rodriguez Presa, Alice Yin and Sam Charles contributed.
