NEWS FLASH
CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— A federal judge just cracked the door open — and hundreds of detained immigrants in the Chicago area could walk through it this week.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings signaled at a hearing Wednesday that he will order the release on bail of 13 people detained during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, ruling under a 2022 consent decree that limits how ICE can make so-called warrantless arrests.
But that’s only the start. Cummings gave government attorneys a Friday deadline to comb through a list of 615 people held in county jails and federal facilities nationwide and identify who qualifies for alternatives to detention — like an ankle monitor — under the decree. He said he’d issue the release order next week, and in the meantime paused deportation proceedings for people who might qualify.
Attorneys for the detainees called it a win. “All of the tactics of ICE have been unlawful in the vast majority of arrests,” said Mark Fleming of the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center.
They’re racing the clock. More than 3,300 people have been arrested in Chicago and the suburbs since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in September — and attorneys say many have already been deported with no access to lawyers and no understanding of their situations.
The Justice Department pushed back. Attorney Will Weiland told the judge at least 12 people on the list were “high risk” and shouldn’t be released into communities. “Nothing has been easy with this case your honor,” he said.
Cummings, who previously found that ICE violated the consent decree, listed arrests made since the crackdown began — people grabbed at work, out walking, even pulling through a fast-food drive-thru lane. “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.
Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily as this courtroom battle unfolds.
Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.
