Injunction ruling provides new look at 'Operation Midway Blitz,' tear gas to agent using ChatGPT to help write report
A federal judge on Thursday issued a scathing opinion that takes a deep dive into the use of force by immigration agents during “Operation Midway Blitz,” revealing new information gleaned from body-worn cameras and other evidence showing how agents used tear gas and flash bang grenades on fleeing protesters, shot a praying minister in the face with pepper balls, and even used ChatGPT to help write a report.
The 233-page written ruling by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, which memorializes her findings in issuing a preliminary injunction earlier this month, takes readers methodically through many of the more high-profile melees between immigration agents and protesters during the two-month operation, including incidents in Albany Park, Old Irving Park, Evanston and the Far East Side.
Ellis wrote in the opinion that, over and over, body-worn camera footage from the agents undermined what was eventually put in their use-of-force reports, rendering their statements unreliable.
The reports also misidentified “neighborhood moms and dads, Chicago Bears fans, people dressed in Halloween costumes, and the lawyer who lives on the block” as professional agitators, Ellis wrote, while the body cameras at times captured the agents’ apparent glee in deploying tear gas and other munitions on residential streets.
“Just start throwing s—” one agent told another during an incident on the East Side in October, according to Ellis’ report.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/injunction-scathing-ruling-midway-blitz/
She let them have it with all six!