Five Sue Border Patrol Agents Over Tear Gas Attacks, Wrongful Detentions During Midway Blitz

Five people filed civil lawsuits Thursday against federal immigration agents, accusing them of deploying tear gas without warning and detaining U.S. citizens by force during Operation Midway Blitz, the immigration enforcement surge that swept through Chicago last fall.

The suits, filed in U.S. District Court, name unidentified Border Patrol agents as defendants. Attorneys Gregory Kulis and Brian Orozco, working with the Chicago Project Legal Aid Society, brought the cases on behalf of a father and his one-year-old daughter, a married couple who volunteered as rapid responders, a man who was recording agents on his phone, and a fifth person who was present as an observer during an enforcement action in Brighton Park.

Four of the five lawsuits center on agents' use of tear gas or pepper spray against people who say they gave agents no reason to react. The fifth focuses on the detention of a U.S. citizen who says he was slammed to the ground and choked before agents realized who he was.

Kulis, a longtime Chicago police misconduct attorney, said the lawsuits are an attempt to force accountability that hasn't come through criminal channels. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office has not charged any federal immigration agent in connection with the operation, despite pressure from residents and advocacy groups to appoint a special prosecutor.

"We want accountability," Kulis said at a news conference outside the Federal Building. "And just as importantly, we're trying to get the public to look at some of these people. [The Department of Justice] looks the other way. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office says, 'I can't prosecute.' So, the only way we can move forward and stop these actions across the country is find these people accountable."

According to the lawsuit filed on his behalf, Rafael Veraza and his one-year-old daughter were standing in the parking lot of a Sam's Club in Cicero on Nov. 8 when Border Patrol agents drove past and deployed tear gas at them without provocation. Veraza, who has asthma, said the gas hit him in the face and made it difficult to breathe. Both he and his daughter were hospitalized with injuries to their eyes and lungs, the lawsuit states.

Estefany and Ezequiel Magdaleno say they were sitting in their car near 4800 S. Damen Ave. on Oct. 3, working as volunteer rapid responders who alert neighbors when federal agents are nearby, when a Border Patrol agent boxed in their vehicle. The agent asked about their immigration status and threatened them with a tear gas grenade, according to their lawsuit. After the couple said they were U.S. citizens, the agent threw the grenade at their car anyway, the suit alleges. Both were exposed to the gas, and their car was left dented and marked.

Jose Dominguez says he was driving in Chicago on Nov. 6 when he noticed Border Patrol agents traveling in the same direction and began recording them on his phone. Both vehicles eventually stopped, and agents approached him aggressively, according to his lawsuit. After Dominguez told them he was a U.S. citizen, agents pulled him from his car, slammed him to the ground, choked him and struck him with their knees while handcuffing him, the suit states. He was held for an unspecified period before being released once agents confirmed his citizenship, and was later treated at a hospital.

A fifth plaintiff, Eduardo Guillen, says he was in Brighton Park near 4000 S. Kedzie Ave. on Oct. 4 acting as a peaceful observer while federal agents carried out an enforcement action in the neighborhood, one of several confrontations that took place in the area that fall.

Operation Midway Blitz brought a large federal immigration enforcement presence to Chicago and its suburbs last year, led in part by Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino. Agents made thousands of arrests across the region during the operation. The operation also included the fatal shooting of a man, the shooting of a woman five times, family separations, and repeated use of tear gas and pepper spray in residential neighborhoods, including in Little Village and Brighton Park.

Kulis said one of the biggest obstacles to holding agents accountable is that many of them operate without visible identification. "The ICE and Border Patrol agents walk around without name tags, covered faces, and we don't know who some of these people are," he said. "Some of them have changed license plate numbers on vehicles. So, that's one of our goals, to find out who these individuals are."

Attorneys have not specified how much money they intend to seek in damages, but said some plaintiffs could be entitled to compensation once the agents involved are identified through the discovery process.

Advocacy groups have petitioned the Cook County State's Attorney's Office for months to appoint a special prosecutor to examine agents' conduct, arguing local authorities have avoided the issue. No federal immigration agent has been criminally charged in connection with the operation to date.

The cases now move into early discovery, where attorneys will seek agency records, body camera footage where available, and other evidence that could help identify the individual agents named as unidentified defendants in each complaint.