The Chicago minister, whom federal agents pelted with pepperballs outside the immigration processing center in Broadview, praised a court ruling Thursday that restricted the use of such force in peaceful protests.
“I’m so grateful for the ruling,” said the Rev. David Black, of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. “And I also have this feeling that it’s such a small piece of the big picture of what still needs to happen.”
The preliminary injunction was handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who told the courtroom that the aggression federal agents have displayed amid their deportation campaign in Chicago “shocks the conscience.”
The new injunction largely mirrors an earlier order the judge issued that forbids agents from using “riot control” weapons against people who pose no immediate threat, and without issuing two warnings.
In a post on ‘X’, Governor JB Pritzker applauded the ruling for upholding the rights of Americans to free speech and peaceful assembly.
“[The] court ruling makes clear the Trump Administration must respect these fundamental American freedoms,” he said. “Illinois follows the law, and federal agents must do the same.”
The ruling was handed down a day after Ellis heard hours of emotional testimony about people’s jarring encounters with armed federal agents, including from Black himself.
In his testimony, Black told the judge that he was hit by seven pepperballs outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Broadview while he was praying outside the facility during a September protest. He also told the court he now carries a GPS tracker with him in case he’s confronted by immigration agents.
Black said he wasn’t surprised when he learned from the judge that U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino “admitted that he lied about whether a rock hit him before he deployed tear gas in Little Village.”
“We saw video evidence in the courtroom of ways that [Bovino] has assaulted people who were simply holding up cameras. He moved in unprovoked and body slammed people and then complained that they had attacked him, and the video evidence shows otherwise.”
Black thinks it’s part of a larger trend of the Department of Homeland Security “lying as almost a matter of policy throughout their operation in Chicago.”
“I’ve been on the ground at many protests, which DHS characterized as riots in their press releases, where people are throwing rocks and bottles and attacking federal agents. None of that is true.”
Though the ruling has left him feeling hopeful, Black said he’s still concerned it may not be enough to rein in the aggressive tactics of ICE agents.
His biggest fear is that “the escalations of ICE are going to lead to their use of live ammunition that is totally unprovoked, and I am really afraid for that day.”
“Yet my faith demands that I move into the face of that fear and continue to go back,” he said.
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