What happens if federal agents defy court orders? Experts weigh in on arrests, crowd control tactics

CHICAGO (WLS) -- There are allegations of federal agents this past weekend not following rulings from judges prohibiting certain crowd control tactics and there are also questions over potential unlawful arrests.

The I-Team asked law experts, what happens if there is a refusal to follow court orders?

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During an interaction Sunday with immigration agents in Northwest Side neighborhood Albany Park, video appears to show agents deploying tear gas against the public without any audible warning - something that is unlawful under a court order from last week.

Other images show immigration agents outside of a church in Rogers Park that same day during a Spanish-language Mass.

That is prompting questions over whether they had warrants targeting specific people or were there without warrants, something that requires additional probable cause and an assessment of an immigrant's flight risk.

"What we have seen now to a much larger scale is federal agents indiscriminately stopping and arresting people without warrants and without probable cause required by federal immigration laws," said Mark Fleming, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center.

A fence still up around the Broadview ICE facility is restricting access to a public road on Monday night after a judge ruled it should be taken down. The deadline to do so is Tuesday night -- but what happens if that does not happen?

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Former federal prosecutor Ron Safer said, "I am very worried about where we are right now. We are on the precipice, looking into the abyss of chaos, because if the norms of the government are not respected, if somebody says, the judiciary makes a decision, and then the executive branch ignores it. That's chaos."

Safer explained federal judges can rule according to the law, but if the executive branch, in this case federal agents, refuse to follow those rulings, judges don't have an army to enforce their orders.

"Normally, judges enforce their ruling by contempt orders, and then the person who is violating the order is fined or imprisoned, if it's bad enough. How do you do that to a cabinet level official, and who is going to enforce that?" he asked.

At that point, the constitution and American norms require the executive branch to enforce itself.

That is something Safer is skeptical the president will do.

"It is norms that presidents will respect the decisions of the courts, that they will respect the views of the governors. That's out the window. None of the norms are being observed, and that is going to create, and is creating crises on the streets and in Washington and across the country," he said.

The I-Team reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about the incident in Albany Park but have not yet received a response.