Judge signals hundreds held in Chicago, other immigration crackdowns could be freed on bond

CHICAGO — Hundreds of people who have been arrested and detained in the Chicago area during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown could soon be released on bond while they await immigration hearings, a federal judge signaled Wednesday.

During a hearing in Chicago, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said he would order the full release of 13 detained individuals based on a 2022 consent decree outlining how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can make so-called warrantless arrests.

He also gave government attorneys a Friday deadline to comb through a list of 615 people detained at county jails and federal facilities nationwide to see whether they qualify for alternatives to detention under the decree, such as using an ankle monitor, while their immigration cases proceed. The judge said he’d issue an order for their release next week and, in the meantime, would temporarily pause any deportation proceedings for people who might qualify for bond under the decree.

Attorneys for the detainees hailed Cummings’ move as a win and said they plan to bring more cases.

“All of the tactics of ICE have been unlawful in the vast majority of arrests,” said Mark Fleming, a lawyer with the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center.

Attorneys said they were racing against the clock, as many of the more than 3,300 people suspected of immigration violations who have been arrested in Chicago and its suburbs since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in September have already been deported or left of their own accord.

“We’re concerned they have no access to counsel and no understanding of what their situation is,” Fleming told the judge.

Will Weiland, a Justice Department attorney, told Cummings that at least 12 people on the list of 615 were “high risk” and shouldn’t be released into communities.

“Nothing has been easy with this case, your honor,” he said.

Cummings previously determined that ICE had violated the consent decree which, among other things, requires the agency to show documentation for each arrest it makes for people besides those being specifically targeted in an operation.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Cummings listed instances since the crackdown started in which immigration agents have arrested people while they were at work, out walking or pulling through the drive-through lane at a fast-food restaurant.

“It also seems highly unlikely to me that any of these foreign nationals … fall into the category of what ICE has called the ‘worst of the worst,’” he said.

The Trump administration has touted its federal intervention efforts as effective at fighting crime and applauded agents’ aggressive tactics that have been challenged in court. But leaders in Illinois say that violent crime had already been trending downward in the Chicago area and that federal agents only inflamed tensions.

Although the consent decree covers arrests by ICE, it doesn’t include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has been behind the most controversial tactics used during the immigration operation, including the liberal use of chemical agents.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both agencies, hasn’t offered details about its arrests, only highlighting a handful of people living in the country without legal permission who also had criminal histories. The Homeland Security Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Wednesday’s hearing.

The consent decree, which expired earlier this year, was extended until February. Although its policy on ICE’s warrantless arrests applies nationwide, remedies for individual cases have been focused in six states covered by the ICE field office in Chicago, where the original lawsuit over immigration sweeps was filed. Those states are Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

Tareen writes for the Associated Press.