🔗 Share this article National Immigration Officers in Chicago Required to Wear Body Cameras by Judicial Ruling A federal judge has required that immigration officers in the Windy City must wear body-worn cameras following multiple incidents where they deployed chemical irritants, smoke grenades, and irritants against demonstrators and city officers, seeming to disregard a prior judicial ruling. Legal Displeasure Over Enforcement Tactics US District Judge Sara Ellis, who had before required immigration agents to show credentials and banned them from using crowd-control methods such as irritants without warning, showed strong concern on Thursday regarding the DHS's continued aggressive tactics. "My home is in Chicago if people haven't noticed," she remarked on Thursday. "And I can see clearly, am I wrong?" Ellis continued: "I'm getting pictures and observing pictures on the television, in the paper, reviewing documentation where I'm experiencing worries about my decision being followed." National Background The recent requirement for immigration officers to employ body-worn cameras coincides with Chicago has become the most recent epicenter of the federal government's mass deportation campaign in the past few weeks, with intense agency operations. Meanwhile, locals in Chicago have been coordinating to block arrests within their neighborhoods, while the Department of Homeland Security has characterized those efforts as "rioting" and asserted it "is taking reasonable and lawful steps to maintain the rule of law and safeguard our personnel." Recent Incidents Recently, after federal agents initiated a car chase and caused a car crash, individuals chanted "You're not welcome" and threw projectiles at the agents, who, apparently without alert, threw tear gas in the direction of the protesters – and 13 Chicago police officers who were also at the location. In a separate event on Tuesday, a masked agent used profanity at demonstrators, instructing them to move back while pinning a young adult, Warren King, to the pavement, while a bystander shouted "he has citizenship," and it was unclear why King was being apprehended. Over the weekend, when attorney Samay Gheewala tried to ask personnel for a warrant as they detained an individual in his neighborhood, he was shoved to the sidewalk so forcefully his fingers were injured. Community Impact At the same time, some area children were forced to stay indoors for recess after irritants filled the area near their playground. Comparable reports have emerged across the country, even as ex agency executives advise that detentions seem to be indiscriminate and comprehensive under the expectations that the federal government has imposed on agents to deport as many individuals as possible. "They don't seem to care whether or not those persons pose a danger to societal welfare," an ex-director, a previous agency leader, stated. "They simply state, 'If you lack legal status, you're a fair target.'"