A federal judge has warned that immigration agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz could be ordered to surrender their personal phones as part of a lawsuit challenging the administration's immigration crackdown in Chicago. District Judge Sara Ellis said Thursday that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who participated in the operation may have to turn over their devices for examination, amid concerns that agents used personal phones for official communications. The warning came during a hearing for a lawsuit brought by Illinois and Chicago, which accuses the Trump administration of using aggressive immigration enforcement tactics to pressure local authorities into cooperating with its deportation policies.
Operation Midway Blitz was launched in Chicago in September 2025 as part of President Donald Trump's wider immigration crackdown and mass deportation push. The operation targeted undocumented immigrants but drew protests and legal challenges over allegations of excessive force, warrantless arrests and civil rights violations. The administration has defended its tactics as necessary to enforce immigration law and protect public safety.
Ellis has yet to order the phones to be surrendered and must first decide whether the lawsuit can proceed. Newsweek reached out to the court and DHS via email for comment. During Thursday's hearing, Ellis spoke of concerns about potentially missing communications involving former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who oversaw Operation Midway Blitz.
Bovino reportedly lost his government-issued phone in January while traveling between Minnesota and South Dakota. Federal authorities could not recover the device, although government lawyers assured the court that its data had been preserved online. According to a September 25 Justice Department court filing, Bovino also refused to surrender his personal phone for examination after a federal judge in California ordered it, maintaining that it contained no work-related information.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Ellis told government lawyers Thursday: "It's clear to me that agents were using their personal phones for work communication." “And what I won’t allow to happen...is for people to hide behind saying that ‘these are our personal phones,’ when they are being used as work phones.” Government lawyers, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, warned that such an order could provoke legal challenges. Ellis said she would consider less intrusive ways to obtain the information. Operation Midway Blitz was a federal immigration enforcement campaign launched in Chicago and other parts of Illinois on September 8, 2025, as part of the Trump administration's wider deportation efforts.
DHS said the operation targeted undocumented immigrants with criminal records whom it accused Illinois' sanctuary policies of protecting. It was named after Katie Abraham, a woman killed in a drunk-driving crash involving a Guatemalan national who was in the United States illegally. The operation involved ICE officers and Border Patrol agents conducting arrests and enforcement activities across the Chicago area.
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