Judge grants preliminary injunction against Bovino, federal agents over use of force

quote:

---

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against federal immigration agents over their use of force during Operation Midway Blitz, telling lawyers for the Trump administration she found their evidence "simply not credible."

---

quote:

---

"It is difficult to conceive how an injunction requiring the government to comply with the Constitution could possibly be harmful," U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said as she explained her decision.

---

quote:

---

Federal agents cannot disperse crowds unless justified by exigent circumstances as defined by DHS's use-of-force policy. They are also barred from using riot control weapons unless needed to stop harm to another person. The use of tear gas, pepper spray or other less-lethal weapons is banned "unless such force is necessary to stop the immediate threat of physical harm to another." This includes standing or kneeling on a person's body. Ellis further ordered that two separate warnings must be issued before any of those tactics are deployed and that they must be issued at a volume at which people can reasonably hear them.

Federal agents are banned from arresting people who disobey a lawful dispersal order unless those persons have committed a crime.

She said that officials' fear of injury cannot justify the suppression of free speech, and that while law enforcement is allowed to disperse a crowd when a threat to peace and or order appears, she does not find "the defendant's version of events credible."

---