A federal judge on Thursday issued an extraordinary reprimand of the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement operation in Chicago, saying the administration made “widespread misrepresentations” about what was happening during the operation.
“While Defendants may argue that the Court identifies only minor inconsistencies, each minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything Defendants represent,” Judge Sarah Ellis wrote of the administration in a scathing 233-page ruling.
The ruling stems from a case in which Ellis limited the Border Patrol’s use of force against protesters and members of the media in Chicago during the so-called “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Law enforcement officers during a standoff with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal agents in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Oct. 4, 2025.
Jim Vondruska/Reuters
Ellis said Border Patrol Commanding General Greg Bovino lied about events that occurred in the Little Village area of Chicago in October.
“As for Bovino, the Court specifically finds his testimony not credible. Bovino was evasive during the three days of his testimony, either providing ‘nice’ answers to plaintiffs’ attorneys’ questions or outright lying,” the judge wrote Thursday.
Ellis said Bovino told the court that several people in Little Village were wearing maroon hoodies, a color he said is consistent with the Latin Kings gang, but the judge argued the evidence says otherwise.
In a statement Friday, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said Judge Ellis’ order does not change “the reality of the situation on the ground and at the appellate level.”
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Judge Ellis’ initial order while the administration’s appeal is heard.
Ellis went into more detail Thursday about the alleged reporting of the events by Bovino and federal agents.
Bovino and DHS had said a rock hit Bovino in the helmet before he fired tear gas, Ellis wrote. Bovino admitted in a statement that he was not hit with a rock until after tear gas was fired. Bovino then offered a new justification for his use of chemical munitions, testifying that he only fired tear gas after “having received a projectile, a rock,” which “almost hit him,” Ellis wrote. But on November 4, in the final session of his testimony, Bovino admitted that he was again “wrong” and that no rocks were thrown at him before the first tear gas canister was fired.
A protester confronts law enforcement officers during a confrontation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal agents in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on October 4, 2025.
Jim Vondruska/Reuters
Body cameras and helicopter videos from Border Patrol agents in Little Village “do not match” the descriptions the agents gave the court, according to Ellis. In one such case, DHS publicly claimed that officers were hit with artillery shell-style fireworks, “when helicopter and BWC footage indicates that those explosions were instead stun grenades fired by the officers.”
On October 3, Bovino can be heard warning the crowd that if they do not disperse, they will be arrested. The protesters, according to Ellis, tried to return, but the officers began to put their hands on them.
In another case, the department alleged that protesters had “shields with nails, but the video demonstrates that at least some of these shields were simply pieces of cardboard, none of the shields had nails, and nothing justified the aggression that the officers showed toward the protesters holding these shields,” the judge wrote.
The judge also said the body camera shows an officer using ChatGPT to finish an incident report.
