Bodycam footage from Operation Midway Blitz released: 'It's all about arresting people'

Footage from nearly four dozen body cameras worn by immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz was released to the public on Wednesday, capturing in shaky, first-person style the abject chaos on the streets as residents and protesters were tear-gassed, hit with pepper balls and arrested during protests of immigration enforcement actions.

The group of videos made public through the Loevy & Loevy law firm includes footage from agents who responded to controversial arrest operations in the Little Village and Irving Park neighborhoods.

The videos show agents lobbing flash grenades at protesters outside the Broadview immigration detention center and interrogating Chicago residents on city sidewalks.

In one clip, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino tells agents to force an angry crowd back from a perimeter fence outside the Broadview immigration detention center and arrest anyone who doesn’t comply.

Another depicts agents in a lengthy high-speed vehicle pursuit through Chicago’s East Side neighborhood that ended in a crash and one agent chasing the vehicle’s suspected passenger into a nearby Walgreens.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered the 43 videos released after she relied heavily on them in issuing a preliminary injunction last week restricting the use of tear gas and other chemical munitions by agents on the public and media.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/28/bodycam-footage-from-operation-midway-blitz-released/

ICE is a bunch of criminals. But we knew that already.