By Andy Rose, Bill Kirkos, Josh Campbell

Chicago (CNN) — The sign outside the door said Courtroom 1403. But inside, it felt a lot more like the principal’s office.

“I’m not happy,” US District Judge Sara Ellis said Thursday in a stern tone no student – or attorney – wants to hear. “I’m really not happy.”

One week after the judge issued a sweeping order trying to calm the intense response of federal agents to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Border Patrol activities in Chicago, Ellis told both sides to come back to her courtroom to have their own intense discussion.

“I live in Chicago, if folks haven’t noticed, and I’m not blind, right?” Ellis opened the hearing. “So, I don’t live in a cave. I have a phone. I have a TV. I have a computer and I tend to get news.”

The judge said those news reports were leading her to believe the Trump administration may not be following her instructions.

“At least from what I’m seeing, I’m having serious concerns that my order’s being followed,” said Ellis from the bench.

In response, Ellis announced Thursday she will expand her restraining order, requiring all federal agents who are part of Operation Midway Blitz and who have body cameras to have them on during encounters with protesters.

“That’s the nice thing about body cameras is that they pick up events before the triggering event happens,” she said.

The judge initially required all agents to wear cameras, but agreed to some flexibility after Sean Skedzielewski, an attorney representing the Trump administration, said it would be logistically impossible to immediately equip all agents with bodycams.

The Department of Justice still opposed the body cam order, arguing it’s not a simple matter to record the body cam videos and consistently turn them around for reviewing and redacting video based on every allegation.

“It would require a tremendous amount of resources,” Skedzielewski said.

Order limited use of riot control weapons and tactics

Ellis – an Obama appointee – issued a temporary restraining order last week after a coalition of local journalists and protesters sued the Trump administration, saying federal law enforcement agents were targeting people engaging in peaceful activity, including multiple reporters who said they had pepper balls fired on them despite being identified as press.

Since then, the plaintiffs said they believe agents violated the order, including a confrontation on Chicago’s southeast side Tuesday after a traffic accident involving US Border Patrol, which ended with agents using tear gas against an angry crowd.

“There’s a reason the Chicago Police Department has policies about car chases and where they occur, and where they need to stop,” said the judge, suggesting the tense situation resulted from Border Patrol agents using tactics not appropriate in the nation’s third-largest city.

“We’re not on the border. We are in an urban, densely populated area where crowds are going to converge when there’s a commotion, where appropriate crowd control is important,” she said. “Trying to apprehend and detain people is very, very different when you’re in an urban setting than when you’re out on the border.”

Ellis demanded that ICE Field Director Russell Hott appear in court on Monday at 10:30 a.m. local time, “to explain to me why I am seeing images of tear gas being deployed and reading reports that there were no warnings given before it was deployed out in the field.” It is unclear if Hott will appear in person or via a video link.

The original restraining order from Ellis blocks agents from targeting journalists who are not interfering with law enforcement. Federal agents are also prohibited from using tear gas and less-lethal munitions on anyone who does not impose an “immediate threat to safety.”

“The issue is that DHS is using force in a manner that violates the constitutional rights of peaceful protesters, journalists and, essentially, clergy members,” said the judge.

“You can’t shoot ‘em in the head (with pepper balls),” Ellis said, addressing a list of things federal agents have been accused of doing in encounters with demonstrators. “You can’t deploy tear gas. You can’t use flash-bang grenades. You can’t drive a car through a crowd.”

Video of a pastor being repeatedly shot by pepper balls during a demonstration outside at an ICE facility near Chicago earlier this month drew widespread outcry.

Immigration agents nationally have expressed reluctance about body cameras

Attorneys on both sides of the Chicago case are waiting for details on how the body camera order will work there. The topic has at times led to friction between immigration agents and FBI agents assigned to assist with enforcement efforts across the country, two law enforcement sources familiar with the situation told CNN.

While FBI agents have worn body cameras during joint arrest operations per their agency’s policy, some immigration agents not wearing body cameras expressed concern to their FBI counterparts about having their tactics recorded, sources said. During one heated exchange, immigration agents who did not want to be captured on body camera footage refused to invite FBI agents along for an arrest operation, one of the sources said.

As CNN has reported, law enforcement sources said the increasingly aggressive tactics they’ve observed by immigration agents have, at times, led to other confrontations in recent months between the Department of Homeland Security and agents from other federal agencies working on joint task forces.

In at least two FBI field office divisions, sources who were not authorized to speak publicly said agents assigned to work on immigration matters raised concerns with their management over what they believed to be questionable tactics by DHS, such as entering private property without permission and racial profiling.

Government says judge is seeing “selectively edited” reports

Skedzielewski suggested the news coverage that prompted the judge’s anger may be misleading, saying Ellis is relying on “one-sided and selectively edited media reports.”

Ellis acknowledged some details in news reports may be under dispute, adding that is why she wants to speak to the field director on Monday.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker – who is not a party to the lawsuit – said Thursday he was pleased by the judge’s decision to expand her order and that agents should be wearing body cameras “because they clearly lie about what goes on.”

“I think we’re going to see more cases brought against ICE and (Customs and Border Protection),” Pritzer added.

Asked recently about tactics used by immigration agents, DHS said in a statement to CNN that federal agents are facing “smearing” by claims the agency is using “harsher approaches” and said they “put their lives on the line every day to enforce the law.”

In a separate case, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops in Chicago last week. The administration is appealing the order.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.