13 People Ordered Released By Friday, Up to 615 Others Could Be Freed into Alternatives to Detention By November 21
CHICAGO — Judge Jeffrey Cummings of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois today ordered the Trump administration to release hundreds of people from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers who are believed to have been arrested without warrants or probable cause, in violation of the Castañon Nava federal consent decree. The judge ordered ICE to fully release 13 people by this Friday who the administration has agreed were unlawfully arrested, and to place up to 615 others on alternatives to detention monitoring programs starting no later than November 21 until the court makes a final determination about whether their arrests violated the decree.
Judge Cummings also ordered ICE to stay deportation and voluntary departure proceedings for individuals pending release on alternatives to detention. Initial documentation provided by the Trump administration suggests 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. That figure does not include people arrested after October 7, or anyone arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) making arrests on behalf of ICE as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz.
The 615 people who could potentially be released on alternatives to detention under today’s order were detained by ICE agents in the Chicago area between June 11 and October 7, 2025. Judge Cummings ordered the Department of Homeland Security to provide to plaintiffs’ counsel by November 19 a complete list of all arrests made by ICE and CBP agents from June 11 through today.
Today’s orders came during a status hearing in ongoing litigation to enforce the 2022 consent decree, which resulted from a class action lawsuit filed by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc. (ACLU of Illinois) on behalf of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Organized Communities Against Deportations, and individual plaintiffs who had been racially profiled and arrested without warrants or probable cause during the first Trump administration.
“We are grateful that Judge Cummings sees the urgency of this moment and has ordered the Trump administration to allow hundreds to leave the inhumane detention centers where they are being unlawfully held and to have a chance at the due process our laws require,” said Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation at NIJC. “Communities throughout the Chicago area have been traumatized by ICE and other federal agents’ chaotic and violent actions in our neighborhoods in recent months, and potentially hundreds of families already have been permanently separated as a result of unlawful arrests and rapid deportations without due process. NIJC and our partners will continue to demand justice for our communities and accountability for the lawless administration we all are facing.”
“Today was a good day as the court ordered the immediate release of 13 people who have been wrongfully arrested and detained by federal immigration officials,” added Michelle Garcia, deputy legal director at the ACLU of Illinois. “In addition, the court noted that more than 600 additional individuals may be released in a week on bond or ankle monitoring, while the parties determine if their arrests violated the consent decree. Most importantly, the court committed to enforcing our agreement with the federal government – a step that creates a pathway for even more of the hundreds of people illegally arrested and detained during Operation Midway Blitz to be released. The court is holding ICE and CBP accountable for breaking the law.”
“This ruling is a great victory for our community and for the rule of law,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at ICIRR, one of the plaintiffs in the Castanon Nava lawsuit. “This ruling further reinforces how lawlessly federal agents have been behaving as they intensified their immigration enforcement operations, which have needlessly separated families, devastated business districts, and spread terror throughout our communities. This ruling is a strong sign that this lawlessness must stop.”