The Department of Homeland Security is doing a victory lap after a federal appeals court paused what the agency calls “an act of judicial overreach.” The dispute centers on the city of Chicago, where agents working under the banner of Operation Midway Blitz have arrested more than 1,800 foreign nationals living illegally and tied to criminal records amid sanctuary city policies and permissive local enforcement.
On Tuesday, Sara Ellis, a U.S. district judge, ordered a senior Border Patrol official, Greg Bovino, to give daily in-person briefings to the court about immigration sweeps in Chicago. The judge’s direction came after weeks of reported clashes between federal agents and dangerous disrupters, complaining that agents used tear gas and pepper balls in neighborhoods like Little Village.
By Wednesday the appeals court had correctly stepped in and blocked the outrageous order. Lawyers for the Justice Department argued that the directive “significantly interferes with the quintessentially executive function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a daily basis.” The DHS celebrated the pause in a statement: “We are thrilled this act of judicial overreach has been paused.”
Operation Midway Blitz was launched in Illinois in early September with the stated goal of removing from the streets “the worst of the worst” — pedophiles, rapists, gang members and other criminal illegal aliens who flocked to under-policed sanctuary jurisdictions. One DHS release described the arrests in blunt terms: “These criminal illegal aliens flocked to Illinois because sanctuary policies allow them to roam free and terrorize innocent Americans.”
In Chicago the scenes have been intense. Videos released by DHS show Border Patrol agents operating in Little Village, a Southwest Side Mexican-American neighborhood, amid violent protests and local outrage. On one of the more violent days of the operation, Oct. 22, three illegal immigrants and six U.S. citizens were arrested — referenced by DHS as occurring “on what [we] dubbed ‘one of the most violent days’ of Operation Midway Blitz.”
At the same time, the local judiciary moved to check the federal enforcement surge. Judge Ellis had previously issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agents from using riot-control weapons (tear gas, pepper balls) against protesters, journalists and clergy “unless there is an immediate threat to safety.” She pointedly questioned agents about deployments around a Halloween parade, observing: “Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to a law enforcement officer… And you cannot use riot control weapons against them.”
So when she demanded daily check-ins from Bovino — in effect supervising the executive branch’s immigration enforcement in real time — the appeals court said hold on. The 7th Circuit granted an administrative stay of the order before Bovino’s first meeting. He now won’t have to sit through daily briefings (for now) while the legal fight continues.
When the federal government decides to enforce immigration laws that many localities ignore, it deserves operational freedom — not to be micromanaged by a judge looking over its shoulder hour by hour. The idea that a district court can demand daily decree-style oversight every weekday from a high-level executive official sets a dangerous precedent of judicial intrusion into the executive’s domain.
