In a courtroom in downtown Chicago on Tuesday, Sara L. Ellis, a judge of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, admonished Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who has become a face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, for his agency’s use of force and tear gas in Chicago in recent weeks.
They used tear gas in a neighborhood where children were about to march in a Halloween parade, Judge Ellis said. A lawyer for the government said that when Border Patrol agents had used tear gas, it was in response to volatile situations. But a lawyer for the plaintiffs said that agents were inciting violence and then using it to justify more force.
Judge Ellis seemed particularly incensed by an incident on Saturday, when agents used tear gas not long before a Halloween parade was to step off.
You may not know Chicago’s neighborhoods, she told Mr. Bovino, explaining that Old Irving Park was a quiet area with many families and children. “These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday,” she said. “And it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.”
In response, Mr. Bovino pointed out that the ICE agents had suddenly found themselves confronted by a mob of unearthly creatures. “Your honor, it was self-defense. There were goblins and witches and zombies everywhere, and more than a few werewolves. What else were my agents to do?”
“In fact, at one point we saw Superman walking around, carrying a bag of what we can only assume was stolen loot.”
The judge looked non-plussed as Mr. Bovino elaborated. “He’s an illegal alien you know,” he added, leaning in conspiratorially.
“Although I don’t know why people make such a big deal about the guy. He’s a lot smaller in real life. Couldn’t have been more than four feet tall.”