 "Federal agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) walk north on North Clark Street in the River North neighborhood, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Chicago. (Photo: Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)")
Federal Immigration officers have been ordered to wear body cameras after they hurled pepper balls, smoke grenades and tear gas against protesters and local police. Sara Ellis, a US district judge, gave the ruling after the ICE officers were seemingly in violation of a federal judge’s ruling from last week.
Interestingly, Ellis had previously ruled that the immigration agents would have to wear badges. On Thursday, she also banned them from using riot-control techniques such as tear gas without warning. The ruling came against the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) continued aggressive tactics, many of which have been caught on camera, and which appear to violate her order.
“I live in Chicago, if folks haven’t noticed,” she said on Thursday. “And I’m not blind, right?” the district judge averred. “I’m getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports where I’m having concerns about my order being followed," she added. Her latest ruling on the requirement of immigration officers using body cameras comes as Chicago has become the centre of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Chaos in Chicago
In the midst of all this, locals have been organising to prevent arbitrary arrests within their communities. However, DHS has called those efforts “rioting” and said it “is taking reasonable and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers”.
On Tuesday, federal agents led a car chase and caused a multi-car collision. Protesters on the streets kept on chanting “Ice go home” and threw objects at the agents, who, seemingly without warning, threw tear gas in the direction of the protesters.
On the same day, elsewhere, a masked agent cursed at protesters, ordering them to back away while pinning a 19-year-old, Warren King, to the sidewalk. While all this was happening, witnesses kept on shouting, “he’s a citizen". It is still unclear why King was arrested.
Amid the chaos, local schoolchildren were forced to stay indoors for recess because tear gas filled the streets near their playground. “They don’t seem to care whether or not those people pose a threat to public safety,” John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director, told Politico. “They just say, ‘If you’re undocumented, you’re a fair target.’” It is yet to be seen how the Trump administration will respond to the recent court ruling.