Background & Stories of Impacted Individuals
In a field “shadow” hearing today in Chicago, over a dozen members are examining Trump’s unlawful and aggressive actions in Chicago and meeting with witnesses who have experienced personal trauma, constitutional violations, and labor implications. The hearing is being convened by Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, along with Chicago-area Representatives Jesús “Chuy” García, Delia C. Ramirez, Robin Kelly, and Danny K. Davis.
Since the start of September, the Trump administration has escalated unprecedented attacks on Illinois communities, surging increasingly violent U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrest operations and attempting to deploy the National Guard. On September 12, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez during a tragic traffic stop after he dropped his children off at school. On September 30, ICE, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and other federal agents used Blackhawk helicopters in a shocking raid on South Shore apartments. On October 4, an ICE agent shot and injured a woman in her car. Children are being torn from their parents and irreversibly traumatized by the raids. Chicagoans are outraged, community networks are mobilizing, and legal service providers are diligently working to defend immigrant rights.
Even before this surge that began in September, in the first seven months of 2025 ICE arrested over 500 more people in Illinois than in all of 2024. DHS said they arrested 800 people during the “Midway Blitz” operation alone, while Members of Congress are demanding answers and transparency regarding the arrests. The administration is also expanding detention capacity by several thousand beds in the Midwest, including to a state prison and military base in Indiana where people abducted in Illinois will be taken.
The strong response from local officials, together with know your rights campaigns, rapid response networks, widespread community mobilization, and legal response, has had an important impact countering the severe harm of the increasingly violent raids.
Defending Against Raids & Federal Overreach
Even after the Trump administration lost its lawsuit to dismantle Illinois’ welcoming policies, the White House continues to direct ICE and other federal agencies to target our neighbors. Members of the Illinois congressional delegation, along with local and state elected officials, have affirmed support for local laws that govern how police interact with immigrant communities in Illinois.
NIJC filed a federal court notice on September 26 on behalf of 27 people unlawfully arrested without warrants or probable cause by DHS officers and other federal agents since May 2025. The filing alerted the court that these recent illegal, and often violent, arrests violate the Castañon Nava consent decree. On October 7, a federal judge ruled to extend the consent decree until February 2026, and ordered ICE to provide relief for people unlawfully detained and produce data on all individuals arrested without warrants since June in the Northern District of Illinois.
NIJC has been informing Congress, providing materials and testimony for hearings about enforcement operations and the erosion of legal protections, including barriers to legal counsel in overcrowded detention centers. It is imperative that our elected leaders continue to condemn the administration’s illegal policies, noting the clear Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations. Funding for advocacy and litigation is also critical to maintain a strong defense of due process and the rule of law in the United States.
Providing immigration legal services
Responding to this unprecedented moment, NIJC is coordinating with a network of legal service providers to build new processes and expand projects to provide legal services and challenge, on a systemic level, the lawlessness of these policies and practices. NIJC is also filing habeas petitions to demand people’s release from detention, and providing know your rights materials to thousands of people.
NIJC is working with a network of providers to triage calls for support received through a hotline and conducting intake to take on cases, while providing representation for hundreds of people currently in immigration detention across the Midwest region. New detention contracts are opening up at an alarming rate, and it is vital that congressional offices continue to conduct oversight visits and oppose the expansion.
Access to legal counsel is lifesaving and the demand for detained removal defense has exceeded network capacity. Immigrants do not have access to court-appointed counsel, yet the consequences of deportation are devastating, including permanent family separation or/and deportation to danger. It is imperative that state and local governments continue to fund legal assistance for immigrant communities.
The following stories illustrate the patterns of rights abuses NIJC is witnessing in Chicago and Illinois communities:
Abel Orozco was detained during immigration raids in January 2025. He was one of the first group of 26 people to challenge the administration for violating the Castañon Nava settlement when they were arrested. Abel, who has been in the United States for nearly 30 years, was abducted by half a dozen armed ICE agents in a case of mistaken identity. Once ICE realized Abel was not their target, they refused to let him go, even as Abel went into an asthma attack. They even tried to break into Abel’s home without a warrant and may have done so, if Abel’s son Eduardo, a U.S. citizen, did not stop them.
Unfortunately, this only marked the beginning of the nightmare the Orozco family has endured. Abel is a small business owner and a devoted father, grandfather, and spouse. Since his arrest, his business and employees’ jobs are in jeopardy, his house is at risk of foreclosure, his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, and his children and grandchildren fear they will never see him again. Ten months later, he continues to be trapped in detention in a county jail. NIJC has made repeated calls for Abel to have a full day in court, access to bond, and to present his case to a judge.
Noemi and Jaime took a family outing with their two children to downtown Chicago’s Millennium Park on Sunday, September 29. As the children played by Crown Fountain, armed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached the family.
“There were a lot more people there, but the agents came directly to us because of how we look,” Noemi told a Chicago Tribune reporter. “It’s not fair.”
Despite repeated attempts to ask for a warrant, the family was arrested and bundled into a parked ICE van on Michigan Avenue, and separated—Noemi and the children taken to O’Hare while Jaime remained in Broadview Processing Center before being sent to a detention center in Texas.
ICE seemed poised to deport the family. However, Noemi and the children have returned home after advocates brought a case in federal district court seeking the family’s release from immigration detention. NIJC continues to work toward Jaime’s release and reunification with his family, and are also assisting the family in applying for lasting protection from deportation.
Helen (pseudonym) was arrested in June at the Chicago Immigration Court as she exited her hearing. Although ICE agents promised her they would show her a warrant for her arrest, they never did. Because of health issues related to a brain tumor, which were exacerbated by the stress of the moment, Helen fainted shortly after the arrest. ICE agents took her to a hospital but refused to remove her handcuffs for her to receive proper care. As soon as she was discharged, ICE agents drove for many hours to Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky. The agents barred her from using the restroom on the drive, meaning that she arrived at the detention center with a high fever from a urinary tract infection. Guards at the detention center did not allow her to use the restroom, so other detained people formed a human screen to allow her to use the restroom in a trashcan with some privacy.
For the first two weeks of her detention, Helen’s husband did not know where she had been taken. Both of them were extremely stressed and worried. This lack of contact meant that Helen did not have funds to get necessary personal care items from the commissary, including menstrual products.
At Grayson, Helen was placed in an observation room alone where she had to sleep on the floor, using only a thin blanket to cover herself. The food she received was often inedible—moldy bread and foamy beans. Because of this, she dropped down to a weight of around 85 pounds. She was rarely permitted to shower, and when she did, the water was so hot that she and the other women often had blistered skin. They had to buy a topical cream from the commissary to help them heal. “I wouldn’t even treat an animal like this,” Helen said.
Helen was released in October, after 4 months in detention, as the result of a habeas petition filed by her NIJC legal counsel. Helen is back home and has been reunited with her husband. However, she is still having trouble sleeping through the night, and has woken her husband with night terrors.
Bruce (pseudonym) had stopped at the Home Depot in Niles, IL before work on October 16 when he heard someone calling his name in the parking lot. He was confronted by ICE agents, who asked if he had overstayed a 2002 visa. Thinking it was better to cooperate with law enforcement officials, Bruce agreed, and he was arrested and taken to Broadview Processing Center. He was not shown a warrant for his arrest.
He was able to call his wife, Lucy (pseudonym), and let her know what had happened to him and where he was being taken.
“When he called me, I could hear in his voice how fearful he was, even though he was trying not to show too much emotion, not to worry me,” Lucy said.
Together, the couple has three US Citizen kids, two of whom are in college, and another in middle school. Even though the family was fearful about Bruce’s immigration status, Bruce wanted to ensure his kids had the best possible opportunities in school, so he continued going to work every day.
“Nothing could have stopped him from taking care of others,” Lucy said.
The family was about a year away from being able to adjust their status, and was looking forward to having peace of mind. Bruce’s detention has thrown all of this into chaos, and traumatized his loved ones.
Naomi (pseudonym) is a mother of four children and a survivor of trafficking and domestic violence. She was ordered removed in 2016 after an immigration judge told her that ICE would not execute her removal order and she would be able to stay with her children. ICE detained Naomi in front of her children in January 2025 after nearly 10 years of compliance with annual check-ins with ICE. Naomi, who is diabetic, has lost about 30 pounds while in detention because she cannot receive the insulin and nutrition she requires. She was also detained without her inhaler, with no replacement provided by the jail. When she had an ear infection, she hesitated to notify medical staff because of a $10 charge to do so.
Nearing 10 months of separation from her children and her fiancé, she is suffering from anxiety and additional psychological harm due to her indefinite detention. Not only was unable to renew an order of protection for herself and her children against her abusive ex-partner because she was in ICE detention, but as a result of her prolonged detention, Naomi’s youngest children were taken back into custody of that abusive ex-partner. One of her daughters ran away from home and recently suffered a miscarriage.
Solomon (pseudonym) was detained while leaving his immigration court hearing in Chicago in June 2025. His case was transferred from the Chicago Immigration Court to Kentucky without an opportunity to oppose the transfer, in violation of regulations and due process. His case was then dismissed, leaving him vulnerable to expedited removal. He fears that if he is returned to Venezuela, he would face persecution for being gay. His partner lives in Chicago and has been tirelessly advocating for him while Solomon remains detained in Kentucky.
Solomon is vulnerable to harassment as a gay man in detention. He has had some issues with other inmates but has not mentioned these incidents to guards for fear of being placed in solitary confinement, which is a common response to these complaints. NIJC represented Solomon in filing a petition of habeas corpus and in October 2025, when a district court judge found that DHS had violated Solomon’s due process rights by detaining him without an individualized custody determination or opportunity for a bond hearing. The court ordered DHS to provide Solomon a bond hearing before an immigration judge or to release him. His NIJC attorneys are hopeful he will be released this week.