Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICE

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino in Chicago

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who has been instructed not to tear gas trick-or-treaters

(Image credit: Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

What happened

The Department of Homeland Security is conducting its third major shakeup of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership since President Donald Trump took office in January, replacing 12 of the 25 field office directors, The Associated Press and Axios said Tuesday. Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch.

The controversial tactics of CBP’s Border Patrol unit were at the center of a court hearing in Chicago Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief from California overseeing Trump’s Chicago-area crackdown, to brief her nightly on his agents’ compliance with her order barring the use of tear gas and other riot control measures in most instances.

Who said what

The list of reassigned ICE field directors was compiled by Bovino and DHS adviser Corey Lewandowski, NBC News and Fox News reported. Trump’s top aides have “welcomed Border Patrol’s more aggressive tactics to secure arrests, such as rappelling into apartment buildings from Black Hawk helicopters and jumping out of rental trucks,” NBC News said, and have “become disappointed with ICE,” which typically narrowly targets migrants with criminal records or deportation orders.

There is “significant friction within different wings of DHS,” Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin said on social media, and Bovino, Lewandowski and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem are in the faction that favors “aggressive tactics to arrest anyone in the U.S. illegally,” criminals or otherwise. “What did everyone think mass deportations meant?” a Border Patrol agent said to Melugin. “Only the worst?”

What next?

Judge Ellis spent an hour Tuesday explaining her Oct. 9 order to Bovino, making sure he understood the constitutional rights of journalists and nonviolent protesters. She pointed to several recent violations, including last weekend, when “kids were tear gassed on their way to celebrate Halloween” in Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood. “Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of law-enforcement officers,” she told Bovino. “They just don’t, and you can’t use riot-control weapons against them.”

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.