A federal judge is scheduled to decide whether federal agencies illegally arrested and detained dozens of individuals during the Trump administration's recent efforts to curtail illegal immigration in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.
In September, the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz, which aimed to "target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor [JB] Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets." DHS announced this week that since the operation began nearly a month ago federal agents "have arrested more than 1,000 illegal aliens – including the worst of the worst pedophiles, child abusers, kidnappers, gang members, and armed robbers."
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) in Chicago alleges that some of the arrests violate a 2022 consent decree, which bars U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting warrantless immigration arrests unless agents have probable cause that a person is in the country unlawfully and poses a flight risk.
Among the alleged violations are the arrest of an Ecuadorian family, including a 5-year-old child, in a Humboldt Park shopping center parking lot; the detention of a Mexican national with no criminal record during a widely publicized Elgin raid attended by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; and the detention of a mother and her two young children in Millennium Park, a case noted by the outlet.
Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation at NIJC, said the judge's ruling on the Castañon Nava settlement could greatly affect how ICE makes arrests in Chicago and nationwide.
"What we are hopeful for is that the judge recognizes they are systematically violating the law," Fleming told the outlet. "This could be very significant, and it is incredibly urgent in light of what's happening in the streets of Chicago on a daily basis. We are hopeful that the judge sees the urgency of the moment."
In its latest court filing, the government characterized the plaintiffs' arguments as excessive, contending that the consent decree is narrowly circumscribed and that plaintiffs are employing 'inflammatory' rhetoric to undermine lawful immigration enforcement.
"The settlement agreement has a limited focus on documentation for warrantless arrests, not all recent law enforcement operations in Chicago as claimed by plaintiffs," the government's Thursday filing stated. "Furthermore ... plaintiffs categorize all collateral arrests as warrantless and 'likely failing to comply with the settlement agreement.' This ambiguous and nebulous categorization is misleading because not all collateral arrests are warrantless."
At the June hearing, Fleming outlined a series of enforcement actions that occurred after President Donald Trump began his second term and announced plans for mass deportations in Chicago. According to Fleming, ICE agents sometimes used blank warrants, one example of which was provided to the judge.
Fleming told the outlet this week that ICE is the "only law enforcement agency in the country that feels it doesn't need to document probable cause" for an arrest.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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