Judge orders improvements at a Chicago-area immigration facility after claims of inhumane conditions

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CHICAGO (AP) —

A federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday ordered authorities to improve conditions at an immigration facility after a group of detainees alleged they were kept in “inhumane” conditions and sued.

The order for the facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview will be in effect for 14 days. It requires officials to provide detainees with a clean bedding mat and sufficient space to sleep, soap, towels, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, menstrual products and prescribed medications.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

CHICAGO (AP) — Senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino defended the use of force by agents accused of using pepper balls, tear gas and other tactics against people protesting federal immigration policies and the detaining of immigrants in the Chicago area.

Bovino made the statement in a deposition — a private interview with lawyers from both sides — given last week. It was brought into evidence during a preliminary injunction hearing Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by news outlets and protesters.

In the deposition, Bovino said he does not remember the name of a Chicago-area pastor who claims to have been struck in the head by pepper balls as he prayed outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, a Chicago suburb.

“I don’t know what the use of force was here, and I can’t make a judgment either way because I don’t know,” Bovino said after viewing footage of the Rev. David Black being shot with the chemical agents.

Black testified earlier that he and others were not threatening agents and that protesters had been hit with pepper balls and tear gas. Agents did not warn protesters before using the chemicals, Black said.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs also played a clip of Bovino grabbing and tackling a man to the ground during one demonstration outside the Broadview facility.

Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Munoz said he was standing beside the man and was also knocked down and pinned by Bovino during the chaos. Munoz said Bovino also smacked his phone from his hands.

Munoz said he was arrested and detained in the Broadview facility for eight hours. He has not returned to the facility to protest, Munoz added.

After attorneys played footage of Munoz's arrest, Bovino repeatedly denied during the deposition that he tackled “an older gentleman” in the video and dodged questions on whether he used force.

Bovino acknowledged that he made physical contact with the man, but denied that he applied force, saying it was not “reportable use of force.”

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has already ordered agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot-control techniques, such as tear gas, against peaceful protesters and journalists. After repeatedly chastising federal officials for not following her previous orders, she added a requirement for body cameras.

Ellis will weigh how to respond to allegations that federal immigration agents in the Chicago area have used excessive force, following a surge of recent court filings detailing tense encounters between agents and residents.

Craig Futterman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, noted recent examples of agents using tear gas on Chicago-area residents, including at a Halloween parade and outside a grocery store. He said Bovino, himself, has been filmed throwing tear gas canisters at protesters. A video of Bovino throwing a canister was played during Wednesday's hearing.

Justice Department lawyer Sarmad Khojasteh accused many protesters of threatening to kill law enforcement officers, impeding their duties and throwing rocks and other objects at agents.

“Such conduct must be rejected,” he said. “To what extent does the freedom of speech protect individuals in obstructing and/or threatening conduct — throwing rocks, bottles, fireworks, surrounding and pinning down law enforcement officials?”

But witnesses say the actions by agents have been unprovoked.

Leslie Cortez, a youth organizer, said she was recording and explaining rights in Spanish to day laborers being arrested by ICE agents outside a Home Depot when one agent pointed a gun at her.

“I could see inside the barrel,” Cortez testified. “My heart accelerated. I was nervous they were going to shoot.”

Chicago Newspaper Guild Executive Director Emily Steelhammer also took the stand, recounting how members of the union said they were hit with rubber bullets, pepper balls and chemical weapons, including tear gas. The incidents mostly occurred in Broadview, but also took place at other Chicago-area demonstrations, she said.

In his deposition, Bovino denied allegations of excessive use of force, saying, “I have not seen our men or women deploy force against protesters.”

When asked by attorneys if a peaceful protester who refuses an instruction from law enforcement would be considered a violent or “assaultive subject,” Bovino said it is an indicator that someone is “potentially on that road” to obstructing agents.

“Not following instructions is certainly one indication of someone that’s, that’s already ready to break the law, be where they’re not supposed to be,” Bovino said.

Wednesday's hearing follows Ellis’s questioning of Bovino at a public hearing last week, where she took the rare step of ordering him to brief her each evening on the federal immigration crackdown in Chicago. That move was swiftly blocked by an appeals court.

Meanwhile, a federal judge is expected to rule Wednesday afternoon after a group of detainees filed a class-action lawsuit against federal authorities, alleging “inhuman” conditions at a Chicago-area immigration facility.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman called the alleged conditions “unnecessarily cruel” after hearing people held at the facility detail overflowing toilets, crowded cells, no beds and water that “tasted like sewer.” He called for the hearing to reconvene at 4:15 p.m. local time Wednesday so that he can issue a temporary restraining order to address the conditions.