{"slug":"operation-midway-blitz-force-and-warrantless-arrests","title":"Operation Midway Blitz: Chicago Immigration Surge Breached a Court Decree on Warrantless Arrests and Drew Orders Limiting Force Against Protesters and Press (2025)","date":"2025-09-08","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"DHS launched Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area on 8 September 2025. Federal courts found that ICE had made warrantless arrests in breach of the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree, after a senior DHS official had declared in a June 2025 email that ICE's obligations under it were terminated; the Seventh Circuit upheld the finding of substantial noncompliance and the decree's extension. Separately, Judge Sara Ellis restrained agents' use of tear gas, pepper balls and force against journalists and peaceful protesters, after incidents including tear gas fired without warning in Little Village. The Seventh Circuit curtailed parts of her orders and, after the plaintiffs dropped the case once the surge ended, vacated her preliminary injunction in March 2026.","summary":"During the Chicago-area immigration surge, ICE made warrantless arrests that federal courts found breached a binding consent decree DHS had said it would stop following. A federal judge also restricted agents' use of chemical weapons against protesters and journalists. Appeals courts affirmed the consent-decree findings in part but vacated the use-of-force injunction on procedural grounds after the case was dropped.","category":"civil-rights","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/08/ice-launches-operation-midway-blitz-honor-katie-abraham-target-criminal-illegal","title":"ICE Launches Operation Midway Blitz in Honor of Katie Abraham to Target Criminal Illegal Aliens Terrorizing Americans in Sanctuary Illinois","publisher":"US Department of Homeland Security"},{"url":"https://www.aclu-il.org/cases/castanon-nava-v-department-homeland-security/","title":"Castañon Nava v. Department of Homeland Security","publisher":"ACLU of Illinois"},{"url":"https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-immigration-enforcement-warrantless-arrests-ice-agents-area-ruled-unlawful-federal-judge/17967144/","title":"Federal judge rules ICE warrantless arrests in Chicago area unlawful","publisher":"ABC7 Chicago"},{"url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca7.55259/gov.uscourts.ca7.55259.24.0.pdf","title":"Castañon-Nava v. DHS, No. 25-3050, opinion on stay pending appeal (11 December 2025)","publisher":"US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (via CourtListener)"},{"url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca7.55259/gov.uscourts.ca7.55259.71.0_1.pdf","title":"Castañon Nava v. DHS, No. 25-3050, final judgment (5 May 2026)","publisher":"US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (via CourtListener)"},{"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-area-ice-arrests-600-criminal-histories-high-public-safety-risk/","title":"Only 16 of over 600 detained by ICE in Chicago area have criminal histories, records show","publisher":"CBS Chicago"},{"url":"https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/10/28/border-patrol-gregory-bovino-federal-court","title":"Border Patrol's Bovino agrees to return to court daily, as he and federal judge talk body cams, tear gas, IDs","publisher":"WBEZ"},{"url":"https://news.wttw.com/2025/10/23/border-patrol-agents-fired-tear-gas-little-village-crowd-no-warning-ald-sigcho-lopez","title":"Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, Other Agents Fired Tear Gas at Little Village Crowd 'Without Justification,' Lawyers Say","publisher":"WTTW"},{"url":"https://news.wttw.com/2025/11/05/hearing-underway-chicago-amid-claims-immigration-agents-are-ignoring-orders-around","title":"Judge Ellis to rule on immigration agents' use of force","publisher":"WTTW"},{"url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca7.55142/gov.uscourts.ca7.55142.11.0_1.pdf","title":"In re Noem, No. 25-2936, order granting mandamus (31 October 2025)","publisher":"US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (via CourtListener)"},{"url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca7.55235/gov.uscourts.ca7.55235.40.0.pdf","title":"Chicago Headline Club v. Noem, No. 25-3023, plaintiffs-appellees' agreed motion to stay appeal (2 December 2025)","publisher":"US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (via CourtListener)"},{"url":"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca7.55235/gov.uscourts.ca7.55235.48.0.pdf","title":"Chicago Headline Club v. Noem, No. 25-3023, opinion vacating preliminary injunction (5 March 2026)","publisher":"US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (via CourtListener)"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["Operation Midway Blitz","Chicago","ICE","Border Patrol","warrantless arrests","consent decree","tear gas","press freedom","Gregory Bovino"],"relatedEntries":["racial-profiling-ice-enforcement","ice-defies-courthouse-arrest-order","national-guard-illegal-deployments","minneapolis-anti-ice-protester-prosecutions","press-freedom-violations"],"timeline":[{"date":"2025-06-11","title":"DHS official says DHS will stop complying with the decree","summary":"A senior DHS official sends an email 'unilaterally declaring that ICE's obligations under the Consent Decree were terminated' (Seventh Circuit)."},{"date":"2025-09-08","title":"Operation Midway Blitz launched","summary":"DHS announces the Chicago-area enforcement operation (DHS)."},{"date":"2025-10-07","title":"Judge Cummings finds decree violations","summary":"Judge Jeffrey Cummings finds ICE failed to substantially comply with the consent decree through warrantless arrests, extends the decree and orders retraining and reporting (ABC7 Chicago; Seventh Circuit)."},{"date":"2025-10-09","title":"Judge Ellis restrains use of force against press and protesters","summary":"Judge Sara Ellis issues a temporary restraining order limiting tear gas, pepper balls and force against journalists and peaceful protesters and requiring visible ID (WBEZ)."},{"date":"2025-10-23","title":"Tear gas in Little Village","summary":"Agents fire tear gas at a crowd in Little Village; an alderman says he heard no dispersal order, and video shown to the court indicates Bovino deployed at least two canisters (WTTW)."},{"date":"2025-10-31","title":"Seventh Circuit vacates daily-reporting order","summary":"The Seventh Circuit grants mandamus against Judge Ellis's order requiring Bovino to appear in court every weekday, finding it put the court in the role of 'inquisitor' and infringed the separation of powers (Seventh Circuit)."},{"date":"2025-11-06","title":"Ellis preliminary injunction","summary":"Judge Ellis certifies a class and grants a district-wide preliminary injunction, later supported by more than 170 pages of findings in which she found the government's witnesses not credible (Seventh Circuit, 5 March 2026)."},{"date":"2025-11-13","title":"Mass release order","summary":"Judge Cummings orders the release of 13 class members and about 442 potential class members arrested during the surge (Seventh Circuit; ACLU of Illinois)."},{"date":"2025-12-11","title":"Seventh Circuit partly stays release order","summary":"The Seventh Circuit refuses to stay the decree's extension but stays most of the release order pending individual determinations (Seventh Circuit)."},{"date":"2026-03-05","title":"Ellis injunction vacated","summary":"After the plaintiffs dismissed their case because the surge had ended, the Seventh Circuit vacates the preliminary injunction under Munsingwear; Judge Easterbrook dissents (Seventh Circuit)."},{"date":"2026-05-05","title":"Seventh Circuit rules on decree appeal","summary":"The court affirms the 118-day extension and the release of class members found arrested without a warrant, and reverses the rest of the release order (Seventh Circuit final judgment)."}],"location":{"name":"Chicago metropolitan area, Illinois","lat":41.88,"lng":-87.63},"custom":{"era":"second-term","posture":"judicial-finding","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 9","provision":"Freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention (US is a party)"},{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Articles 19 and 21","provision":"Freedom of expression, including of the press, and of peaceful assembly (US is a party)"},{"statute":"UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials","provision":"Non-binding standards: force only when strictly necessary and proportionate; dispersal of non-violent assemblies without force where possible"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Chicago-area residents, most of them Latino, arrested without warrants in breach of the consent decree: at least 22 earlier in 2025, about 30 more documented by the plaintiffs during Midway Blitz, and 13 class members both sides agreed were unlawfully arrested; the government acknowledged 46 arrests violating the decree in February 2026 (ACLU of Illinois). Protesters, clergy and journalists hit with tear gas and pepper balls, including a pastor struck at least seven times outside the Broadview facility (WTTW).","perpetrators":"DHS and ICE leadership, including the senior official who declared in June 2025 that ICE's obligations under the decree were terminated; Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, who led the field operation; then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem; President Donald Trump's administration, which ordered the surge.","structuredVictims":[{"group":"Residents arrested without warrants in the Chicago area","status":"arrested in breach of a federal consent decree; some ordered released"},{"group":"Protesters and journalists","status":"subjected to tear gas, pepper balls and force; subject of a federal restraining order"}],"structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Immigration and Customs Enforcement","role":"Made warrantless arrests found to breach the Castañon Nava consent decree","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"},{"name":"Gregory Bovino","role":"Border Patrol chief leading Midway Blitz field operations; video indicated he personally deployed tear gas in Little Village","institution":"US Customs and Border Protection"},{"name":"Kristi Noem","role":"DHS Secretary; named defendant in the press and protester suit (Chicago Headline Club v. Noem)","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"}],"keyPoints":["DHS launched Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area on 8 September 2025 (DHS; WBEZ).","The Castañon Nava consent decree (2022) bars ICE, in its Chicago area of responsibility covering six Midwestern states, from many warrantless 'collateral' arrests made without probable cause that the person is likely to escape (ACLU of Illinois; Seventh Circuit).","On 7 October 2025 Judge Jeffrey Cummings found ICE had failed to substantially comply with the decree and extended it by 118 days; he relied in part on 'the unilateral proclamation by a DHS senior official on June 11, 2025 that DHS would no longer comply with the Consent Decree' (Seventh Circuit, 11 December 2025; ABC7 Chicago).","In September 2025 the plaintiffs documented 30 more violations, warrantless arrests of Latino residents during Midway Blitz. On 13 November Judge Cummings ordered the release of 13 class members and about 442 potential class members (ACLU of Illinois; Seventh Circuit).","DHS records reported by CBS Chicago showed that of about 600 people detained in the area from June to mid-October, only 16 were flagged as high public-safety risks because of criminal histories.","On 5 May 2026 the Seventh Circuit affirmed the decree's extension and the release of class members found to have been arrested without a warrant, but reversed the release of 'potential class members' and of people arrested on I-200 administrative warrants (Seventh Circuit final judgment).","On 9 October 2025 Judge Sara Ellis restrained federal agents from using tear gas, pepper spray and other weapons against journalists and peaceful protesters, required two warnings before riot-control weapons were used, and required agents to display visible identification; at a later hearing she pressed Bovino to ensure agents wore body cameras (WBEZ). Video shown to her indicated Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino personally threw tear gas in Little Village on 23 October (WTTW).","The Seventh Circuit vacated Judge Ellis's order requiring Bovino to report to court daily as a breach of the separation of powers (31 October 2025), stayed her 6 November preliminary injunction as overbroad, and on 5 March 2026 vacated it after the plaintiffs, citing the end of the surge, dismissed their case (Seventh Circuit)."],"searchAliases":["Midway Blitz","Castañon Nava","Chicago ICE surge","Chicago Headline Club v. Noem","Broadview"],"legalBasis":"Castañon Nava v. DHS consent decree and 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(2) (warrantless immigration arrests); Fourth Amendment; First Amendment; ICCPR Arts. 9, 19 and 21","postureNote":"The consent-decree findings are judicial: Judge Cummings found substantial noncompliance, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed the extension and part of the release order on 5 May 2026 while reversing the rest. The use-of-force findings are different. Judge Ellis's preliminary injunction and its accompanying findings, including her finding that government witnesses were not credible, were vacated on 5 March 2026 without a ruling on their merits, after the plaintiffs dismissed the case; the Seventh Circuit had earlier stayed the injunction as overbroad and vacated her order requiring Bovino's daily appearance. The individual use-of-force incidents described here rest on press reporting and testimony, not a surviving judicial finding. No international crime is in play.","relatedIncidents":["racial-profiling-ice-enforcement","ice-defies-courthouse-arrest-order","national-guard-illegal-deployments","minneapolis-anti-ice-protester-prosecutions","press-freedom-violations"]}}