Judge who blasted Operation Midway Blitz use-of-force tactics will hear new lawsuit by city, state

Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune on Jan 15, 2026

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CHICAGO — The federal judge who issued a landmark preliminary injunction in November limiting the use of force by immigration agents agreed Thursday to take over a new lawsuit filed by the state and city of Chicago alleging a much broader swath of illegal actions during the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis made the decision over the strenuous objection of Justice Department lawyers, who argued there were not only contrasting legal issues in the two cases but that they were at diametrically different stages of litigation.

“I just don’t think realistically you can hand wave and say all these things are intertwined,” said attorney Peter Goldstone, of the DOJ’s Civil Division.

But Ellis sided with the plaintiffs in ruling that both cases arise out of the same law enforcement action in Operation Midway Blitz. She said the two complaints also involve many of the same incidents and evidence she reviewed in issuing her injunction, including body camera footage, use-of-force reports, and declarations, depositions and testimony from Department of Homeland Security leaders.

“This court has spent countless hours already that covered the exact same operation that is now at issue in the state and city case,” Ellis said, adding that having another judge “get up to speed on the issues would be inefficient.”

By local rule, she is allowed to take on a case — rather than have it randomly assigned to another judge — if the issues are shown to be related and if doing so would substantially conserve judicial resources.

While the merits of the latest suit have yet to be challenged, having Ellis, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, presiding over the case is surely unwelcome news for the Trump administration.

In November, a DHS spokeswoman called Ellis’ ruling “an extreme act by an activist judge that risks the lives and livelihoods of law enforcement officers.”

Ellis found in her scathing opinion that not only had agents used inappropriate force, but that immigration leaders, including Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, had lied about it under oath. She’d also personally held Bovino’s feet to the fire by ordering him in to testify about alleged violations of her temporary restraining order, and required agents to wear body cameras at all times when interacting with the public.

Ellis’ injunction was later stayed by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the plaintiffs in that case have moved to dismiss the suit as a tactical maneuver. A hearing in that case is also set for next week.

The lawsuit filed Monday, meanwhile, alleged immigration agents acted more like an occupying military force than law enforcement during Operation Midway Blitz, terrorizing neighborhoods with “roving patrols,” illegally switching out license plates, randomly stopping people to question them about their citizenship, and making warrantless arrests.

The 103-page suit, filed jointly by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and city attorneys, seeks a judicial order limiting these and other practices, including conducting immigration enforcement operations from “sensitive” areas such as schools, courthouses and hospitals, and limiting the use of “biometric” scanning of fingerprints and other personal information.

“Border Patrol agents and ICE officers have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law,” Raoul said in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “They randomly, and often violently, question residents. Without warrants or probable cause, they brutally detain citizens and non-citizens alike. They use tear gas and other chemical weapons against bystanders, injuring dozens, including children, the elderly and local police officers.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker similarly spoke out against ICE and CBP’s tactics in Chicago and said in a post on X that the state was “standing up for our people.”

Among those named as defendants in the suit was U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE Director Todd Lyons, and Bovino, who has been the public face of Operation Midway Blitz and other similar operations around the country.

Earlier this week, a DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the latest lawsuit “baseless,” and said Illinois can not legally interfere with the federal government’s deportation efforts.

“It really is astounding that the Left can miraculously rediscover the Tenth Amendment when they don’t want federal law enforcement officers to enforce federal law — which is a clear federal responsibility under Article I, Article II and the Supremacy Clause — and then go right back to federalizing every state responsibility possible when they get back in power,” Tricia McLaughlin said.

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