US federal judge orders release of hundreds of immigrants from ICE detention News
Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
US federal judge orders release of hundreds of immigrants from ICE detention

A US federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to release hundreds of people from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, claiming they were arrested in likely violation of the Castañon Nava federal consent decree.

The order, penned by Judge Jeffrey Cummings of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, required the administration to release 13 individuals by Friday and to place 615 others in alternative monitoring programs by November 21. The court also ordered ICE to stay deportation and voluntary departure proceedings for individuals pending release on alternative programs.

The detainees were arrested during Operation Midway Blitz, launched by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in September. The operation was created to honor Katie Abraham, who was killed by illegal immigrant in a drunk driving hit-and-run incident, and targeted illegal immigrants in the Chicago area. DHS blamed Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and his sanctuary city policies for the influx of immigrants to the area.

Following the order, DHS voiced strong disagreement with Judge Cummings:

At every turn activist judges, sanctuary politicians, and violent rioters have actively tried to prevent our law enforcement officers from arresting and removing the worst of the worst. Now an ACTIVIST JUDGE is putting the lives of Americans directly at risk by ordering 615 illegal aliens be released into the community.

However, the administration agreed that the 13 detainees to be released by Friday were unlawfully arrested, possibly in violation of the 2022 consent decree.

It is estimated that as many as “1,100 people out of 1,852 = arrested by ICE in the Chicago area prior to October 7 may have already been deported without due process or left the United States via voluntary departure in order to avoid prolonged stays in inhumane immigration detention centers located throughout the country.”

The order was part of a longer ongoing litigation, Castañon Nava et al. v. Dep’t of Homeland Security. Castañon-Nava represents a class of individuals unlawfully arrested in the Chicago area by ICE during the first Trump term in 2018. It was alleged that during the arrests, ICE officers violated the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fourth Amendment.

It is still unclear how many ICE arrests, specifically warrantless arrests, were made in the Chicago area.

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