🔗 Share this article Federal Immigration Officers in Chicago Mandated to Wear Recording Devices by Judicial Ruling A federal judge has ordered that federal agents in the Windy City must wear body-worn cameras following numerous events where they employed pepper balls, smoke devices, and irritants against demonstrators and local police, seeming to contravene a previous judicial ruling. Legal Frustration Over Enforcement Tactics Federal Judge Sara Ellis, who had previously ordered immigration agents to wear badges and forbidden them from using dispersal tactics such as chemical agents without warning, voiced considerable concern on Thursday regarding the DHS's ongoing heavy-handed approaches. "My home is in this city if folks were unaware," she declared on Thursday. "And I'm not blind, am I wrong?" Ellis continued: "I'm getting pictures and viewing pictures on the television, in the newspaper, examining accounts where I'm feeling worries about my order being obeyed." Wider Situation The recent requirement for immigration officers to wear body-worn cameras comes as Chicago has become the latest focal point of the national leadership's immigration enforcement push in the past few weeks, with forceful government action. At the same time, community members in Chicago have been organizing to prevent arrests within their neighborhoods, while the Department of Homeland Security has described those efforts as "rioting" and asserted it "is implementing reasonable and lawful measures to maintain the legal system and protect our personnel." Specific Events Earlier this week, after immigration officers conducted a car chase and led to a multiple-vehicle accident, demonstrators yelled "Leave our city" and launched objects at the personnel, who, reportedly without alert, used tear gas in the vicinity of the crowd – and thirteen city police who were also on the scene. In a separate event on Tuesday, a officer with face covering cursed at protesters, commanding them to back away while holding down a young adult, Warren King, to the pavement, while a observer shouted "he's a citizen," and it was unclear why King was being apprehended. Recently, when attorney Samay Gheewala attempted to demand officers for a court order as they arrested an person in his community, he was pushed to the ground so forcefully his hands were bleeding. Public Effect At the same time, some local schoolchildren were required to stay indoors for recess after chemical agents filled the area near their playground. Similar anecdotes have emerged nationwide, even as former immigration officials advise that detentions appear to be indiscriminate and sweeping under the demands that the federal government has placed on personnel to remove as many individuals as possible. "They don't seem to care whether or not those persons represent a risk to public safety," an ex-director, a ex-enforcement chief, commented. "They simply state, 'If you're undocumented, you become eligible for deportation.'"