CHICAGO — A federal lawsuit that aimed to limit immigration agents’ use of force against journalists and protesters has come to a sudden halt.
After a legal battle that put a national spotlight on the Trump administration’s immigration “blitz” in Chicago, Block Club and other media groups that brought the case announced late Tuesday afternoon that they had voluntarily moved to drop it.
In a court filing, the plaintiffs and their lawyers said they were moving to withdraw the suit because “the situation that precipitated the relief sought in this litigation has changed in a material way.”
Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino and his crew of more than 200 agents left the Chicago area last month, and attorneys said they haven’t received “a single report of unconstitutional behavior that necessitated this case since Nov. 8, 2025.”
“The purpose and aim of this [lawsuit] was to get federal agents — Bovino and his band of mercenaries and thugs — to stop pepper balling and tear gassing and otherwise inflicting massive harm on communities,” said David B. Owens, partner at Loevy + Loevy. “They have left. They have stopped doing that.”
Agents deploy tear gas and smoke grenades during a confrontation between federal agents and residents at 105th and Avenue N on Chicago’s East Side on Oct. 14, 2025. Credit: Matthew Kaplan/Block Club Chicago
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment. Justice Department attorneys represented defendants in the case, including leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Border Patrol.
At the center of the high-profile lawsuit was federal immigration agents’ use of force against journalists and peaceful protesters during the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area, called Operation Midway Blitz.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis cited video evidence and witness testimony in highlighting some of those violent incidents in a 233-page written opinion last month. The ruling blasted lies and distortions by federal authorities while restricting their use of force.
But the move by the plaintiffs to end the case follows a legal ruling in favor of the government. On Nov. 19, a panel of judges with the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals paused Ellis’ order restricting agents’ enforcement tactics, calling it an “overbroad” encroachment on the powers of the federal executive branch.
The lawsuit will formally end after Ellis grants the motion to dismiss it. The Department of Justice has “indicated that they will move to dismiss the appeal if this court dismisses the case with prejudice” — meaning it can’t be reintroduced — according to Tuesday’s court filing by the plaintiffs.
Legal experts say the government’s appellate court victory was likely a factor in the plaintiffs’ decision to drop the lawsuit.
“[Attorneys are] thinking, ‘What’s the likelihood they’re going to affirm the decision or they’re going to reverse the decision?’” said Richard Kling, clinical professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. “Obviously they thought it was in their advantage to dismiss it.”
Block Club joined the Chicago Headline Club and other media groups and journalists as plaintiffs when the lawsuit was filed in October. The groups were represented pro-bono by attorneys with Loevy + Loevy, the ACLU of Illinois and other firms.
Stephanie Lulay, Block Club executive editor and co-founder, said the nonprofit newsroom decided to sue the federal government after some of its reporters were shot with pepper-spray and tear-gassed by federal agents as they covered protests outside the ICE facility in suburban Broadview.
“We took this unprecedented step to protect our journalists and to assert our First Amendment right to report without fears of violence or arrest,” Lulay said.
In a news release, the Chicago Headline Club, one of the plaintiffs, said the case had already succeeded in revealing evidence of unjustified uses of force by federal agents, including a number of instances when authorities used tear gas, pepper spray balls and physical attacks on protesters, journalists and bystanders in the city and suburbs.
“We took the issue to a federal judge, and she outlined in great detail how federal agents violated the basic rights of reporters, religious figures, and protesters,” the Chicago Headline Club’s board said in a written statement.
Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino arrives at the Federal Building in the Loop on Oct. 28, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Last month, after hearing hours of testimony and reviewing 500 hours of body camera footage, Ellis extended force restrictions on federal immigration agents. In the blistering written opinion that followed, Ellis said the federal government repeatedly lied and misled the public about agents’ excessive use of force in and around Chicago.
Much of that video and written documentation was then released to the public, including transcripts of a deposition in which Bovino admitted he lied “multiple times” about events leading to him tear-gassing people in Little Village in October.
“Block Club’s lawsuit against the federal government wasn’t only about protecting our journalists. It was about the truth, and this case revealed massive truths, including finding the government lied about operations in Chicago,” Lulay said.
Last month Bovino left Chicago along with dozens of other Border Patrol agents. But federal officials have vowed that the immigration roundups in and around Chicago will continue. Citing a Homeland Security source, the Sun-Times previously reported 1,000 federal agents could return to Chicago in March.
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