U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who was at the center of several use-of-force lawsuits and the most violent, controversial actions of Operation Midway Blitz, is back in the Chicago area Tuesday morning.

In a video shared with CBS News Chicago by an immigration rapid response group, Bovino can be seen on the sidewalk standing with a group of Border Patrol agents, talking and laughing. The video appears to be near Midway International Airport, which is not far from the initial sightings in Cicero.     

A short time later, Bovino was spotted in Little Village near 27th and Ridgeway with CBP agents, this time in full tactical gear and carrying a semi-automatic weapon. A couple blocks away at 33rd and Ridgeway, CBS Skywatch caught CBP agents detaining a person and loading them into a white SUV. 

Neighbors tried to use a large rock to block agents from making their way down 26th Street through the neighborhood, but it did not work. Groups of residents and protesters are out throughout Little Village, blowing whistles, filming and confronting agents as they continue their operations. 

Federal agents, with Bovino and not, have continued to make their way through Little Village and back into the near western suburbs, taking people into custody in neighborhoods, commercial parking lots and along the side of the road. 

The action seems to indicate that federal immigration enforcement in Chicago is back in force. 

Earlier Tuesday morning, people reported on social media that Bovino was spotted at a Walmart in Cicero, Illinois. In one video, Bovino and about half a dozen CBP agents in full tactical gear can be seen by a white SUV taking a man in a gray hoodie into detention with zip-ties as another agent in a uniform labeled "MEDIA" films the detainment.   

The Department of Homeland Security has regularly turned its own footage of immigration operations into social media videos as it has ramped up immigration enforcement nationwide, including a controversial overnight raid at a South Shore apartment building. 

Bovino left Chicago after two and a half months of leading Operation Midway Blitz in mid-November, as the Trump administration's immigration enforcement goals turned their attention to Charlotte, North Carolina, then New Orleans before coming back to the Midwest for operations in Minnesota.

At the time, the Department of Homeland Security indicated that agents would return in the spring, but didn't specify a timeline. 

Bovino's arrival in Chicago toward the beginning of Operation Midway Blitz led to a swift increase of CBP agents on the streets in the greater Chicago area, as well as a marked escalation in the use of force against civilians and protesters.

Soon after taking over, CBP agents started deploying tear gas against civilians, media and protesters on residential neighborhood streets and near schools. That led to a federal use-of-force lawsuit, testimony in open court and hours of depositions. Federal Judge Sara Ellis issued a preliminary injunction against federal immigration agents in early November over the use of force, setting sharply stricter limits on what they could do and when.

When Bovino left the city, hundreds of CBP officers left alongside him.

About two weeks after Bovino left, attorneys for the group of journalists, clergy and protesters who were at the center of the use-of-force lawsuit moved to have the lawsuit dropped, saying that as Bovino had left, it appeared the Trump administration's immigration enforcement blitz had ended, though the government argued that was not the case. The preliminary injunction was being considered by an appeals court at this time.

DHS sent a statement in response to CBS News Chicago inquiries, saying in part, "As we said a month ago, we aren't leaving Chicago and operations are ongoing."