Footage from nearly four dozen body cameras worn by immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz was released to the public on Wednesday, capturing in shaky, first-person style the abject chaos on the streets as residents and protesters were tear-gassed, hit with pepper balls and arrested during protests of immigration enforcement actions.
The group of videos made public through the Loevy & Loevy law firm includes footage from agents who responded to controversial arrest operations in the Little Village and Irving Park neighborhoods.
The videos show agents lobbing flash grenades at protesters outside the Broadview immigration detention center and interrogating Chicago residents on city sidewalks.
Federal agents in tactical gear fire pepper spray balls and lob flash grenades to clear protesters from the street outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview on Sept. 19, 2025. (Loevy & Loevy)In one clip, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino tells agents to force an angry crowd back from a perimeter fence outside the Broadview immigration detention center and arrest anyone who doesn’t comply.
Another depicts agents in a lengthy high-speed vehicle pursuit through Chicago’s East Side neighborhood that ended in a crash and one agent chasing the vehicle’s suspected passenger into a nearby Walgreens.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered the 43 videos released after she relied heavily on them in issuing a preliminary injunction last week restricting the use of tear gas and other chemical munitions by agents on the public and media.
In her 233-page opinion, Ellis wrote that, over and over, body-worn camera footage from the agents undermined what was eventually put in their use-of-force reports, rendering their statements unreliable.
The reports also misidentified “neighborhood moms and dads, Chicago Bears fans, people dressed in Halloween costumes, and the lawyer who lives on the block” as professional agitators, Ellis wrote, while the body cameras at times captured the agents’ apparent glee in deploying tear gas and other munitions on residential streets.
“Just start throwing s—,” one agent told another during an incident on the East Side in October, according to Ellis’ report.
The judge also revealed for the first time that one body-worn camera video captured an immigration agent using the AI tool ChatGPT to “compile a narrative for a report based on a brief sentence about an encounter and several images.”
“To the extent that agents use ChatGPT to create their use of force reports, this further undermines their credibility and may explain the inaccuracy of these reports when viewed in light of the BWC footage,” Ellis wrote.
The judge’s ruling came after media groups sued the Department of Homeland Security over the treatment of protesters and reporters. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay, calling the ruling “overbroad” and said it improperly targets virtually the entire executive branch, including President Donald Trump.
The 7th Circuit has issued an expedited appeal schedule.
Broadview clashes
Several of the body-worn camera clips show agents clashing with protesters in Broadview.
A roughly 12-minute video from Sept. 19 shows at least two dozen agents in tactical gear — camouflage, helmets, gas masks — stepping out of the suburban detention center’s fenced parking lot to clear protesters from the street.
Agents unleash a barrage of pepper spray balls and lob flash grenades, filling the night sky with plumes of white smoke.
“Stay on the line, shoulder to shoulder,” the agent wearing the camera says as he repeatedly fumbles with the pin of a ball-shaped grenade in his right hand, the word “stinger” printed on the side, which he eventually throws into the street. “Stay in line. Stay in line. Good job.”
A man with a megaphone shouts at the agents: “You guys are pathetic. What are you doing?”
At one point, the camera catches a glimpse of two agents who appear to be carrying a person toward the detention center.
“Leave that gate open, brother,” the agent says. “They got one.”
Two agents yell at a man standing at the fence across from the building to move.
“I can’t see,” he responds, holding his face.
The man’s eyes are closed, hands raised, as the agent wearing the camera approaches.
“I just need to leave,” the man tells the agent.
“Do not cause any violence. Do not come back. You understand?” the agent responds. “You come back, you will be arrested.”
Agents eventually withdraw to the fenced lot, where they’re told to check their gear and note any uses of nonlethal force.
A week later, on Sept. 27, a video clip shows agents donning gas masks to a soundtrack of reggaeton playing from someone in the crowd of protesters.
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