After the Blitz: What Our Chicago Neighbors Are Facing in ICE Detention

Introduction

Since early September 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, in collaboration with other federal agencies, have unlawfully taken thousands of community members — neighbors, teachers, parents, entire families — from Chicagoland’s neighborhoods during the Trump administration’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz.” 

The first place that ICE and CBP take most people after arrests in the Chicago area is the notorious ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, where inhumane conditions have been documented by members of Congress, the courts, and media. What happens to people next is more obscure, when ICE transfers them from Broadview to its contracted county jails, federal and state prisons, or privately operated detention camps. Many of these locations have recently contracted with ICE or added capacity as part of an expansion of the immigration detention system across the Midwest and the country.  

In these detention centers, people experience serious due process and human rights violations. Guards and ICE officials often hinder them from communicating with loved ones and lawyers. Some are subjected to hearings or are rapidly deported before lawyers can find them and offer counsel. ICE agents often pressure people to give up their claims and accept “voluntary departure” or removal orders, despite qualifying for relief, to avoid prolonged detention in horrifying and deadly conditions. Many NIJC clients say they were denied medical care or held in solitary confinement for no clear reason. Transgender clients report being housed in inappropriate cells or dormitories. 

The following brief report provides a snapshot of where people have been taken and the conditions they are facing after being abducted by ICE from our Chicagoland communities.

Where People Were Taken

Inhumane Detention in Broadview, Illinois

Illinois banned ICE from detaining people in its county jails and state prisons, but ICE has increasingly used the Broadview facility to detain people swept up in the Chicagoland raids. Previously, Broadview was used to hold people for short periods until they were released, deported, or transferred to a longer-term detention facility out of state. Under the second Trump administration, however, people have spent weeks at Broadview after ICE abducted them from our communities. In a lawsuit filed in October, people locked inside the facility reported they had been denied private calls to attorneys and were not provided sufficient food, water, hygiene, or medical care. The complaint, and later testimony before the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, described how people at Broadview were deprived of sleep, privacy, menstrual products, and even the ability to shower. On November 5, a judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order, ordering ICE to improve conditions at Broadview and allow attorneys to make contact with those inside. Broadview has been a flashpoint of community groups showing up to protest being met with brutal use of force by ICE and CBP agents.  

DHS prevented Chicago area members of Congress for months from entering Broadview to conduct oversight and visit their constituents. Congresswoman Underwood was finally allowed to enter and reported on the inhumane conditions. DHS told the congresswoman that Chicago area of operations facilities were holding three thousand people in detention, and ICE was working to expand to a new privately operated shuttered prison in Kansas. 

Rampant Due Process Violations 

Lost in the System:

Immigration detention raises serious access to counsel barriers, and as people are sent to detention, it is increasingly difficult for lawyers to find people in the system. ICE’s online locator is supposed to be a key tool for finding people in the sprawling patchwork of jails and prisons, but in recent months it has taken days to locate people in detention. In some instances, people simply stopped showing up in the system entirely even though they were eventually found to be in the custody of ICE. This leaves clients isolated and attorneys scrambling to find people before they are deported without due process. Declarations from people facing the Midway Blitz raids also describe the tremendous barriers to access to counsel that people have faced after being taken into ICE custody after being abducted from the Chicago area. CBP agents have also arrested hundreds of people during the Chicago area operations, with little to no transparency regarding their fate.  

Barriers to Release:

When locked up, it is harder than ever to get out of detention.  A Trump administration policy issued in July, and then a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling in September, dramatically expanded the Executive Branch’s interpretation of who should be subject to mandatory detention and denied the opportunity for release on bond. Almost overnight, lengthy—and costly—habeas corpus litigation became many people’s only hope to win release. Habeas, a federal form of seeking release from custody, is a complicated legal tool, leaving those without an attorney at a significant disadvantage. Even when a bond is granted, it tends to be for higher amounts, sometimes up to $50,000. In November, a federal court rejected both the administration’s July policy and the Board’s ruling and certified a nationwide class of thousands of individuals who could be eligible for release. The court’s decision does not require the immigration judge to grant bond, only that they hold a hearing, and that ruling has yet to be implemented consistently in immigration courts. NIJC represents people who have been granted bond by an immigration judge but are still detained because ICE refuses to free them. 

Pressure to agree to deportation:

As people are increasingly subjected to intolerable and deadly detention conditions, many have been pressured or coerced to sign paperwork for “voluntary departure,” sending them back to their countries of origin and separating them from their families without a day in court, often before they can even talk to a lawyer. Legal screenings completed for victims of the September South Shore apartment raid showed that at least two individuals chose to accept removal from the U.S. rather than stay and fight their case. Interviews with people held at the North Lake detention center in Michigan and the Camp East Montana detention camp in El Paso, Texas, also document reports of ICE guards or contractors verbally inducing people to accept their removal if they wished to avoid prolonged detention. Records relating to the Castañon-Nava federal consent decree suggests over 1,000 people 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.  

Dangerous Conditions and Medical Neglect

Immigration detention is a fundamentally unjust system that causes significant and long-lasting harm for people. Medical neglect, overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and lack of access to nutritious food are constant inside ICE detention centers. All of these have been exacerbated as the Trump administration races to meet a goal of deporting one million people by the end of this year. The deportation machine is contingent on detention capacity, and in service of that goal, the Trump administration is seeking to more than double  detention capacity to 107,000 beds. At least 20 people have died in ICE custody according to the administration since January 2025, but that count is likely low as ICE frequently releases critically ill people before they die to avoid reporting on more deaths in detention. Thousands more have been left with permanent physical and psychological aftereffects from their time spent in immigration jails. ICE is currently holding over 65,000 people in detention – more than ever before.  

All of Us Must Act to Defend Our Neighbors in Detention

Throughout Operation Midway Blitz, Chicagoland communities have taken action to defend each other and our due process rights. Neighbors are documenting warrantless arrests, calling the Family Support Network hotline to report when neighbors were taken, and now are fundraising to pay bonds for hundreds of people who could potentially be released under the Castañon-Nava consent decree.

Congress also must do everything in its power to prevent further expansion of the abusive immigration detention system and advocate for the release of people trapped in custody. This includes using must-pass spending bills to place restrictions on funding immigration detention contracts with companies that have records of human rights abuses, and making any additional funding contingent on DHS adhering to basic standards and protections. It is important to use the amendment process to prevent any additional military resources going toward immigration enforcement or detention. Congress must also demand access to detention facilities to conduct vigorous oversight visits and advocate on behalf of people in detention. NIJC updated a guide with ACLU and the Detention Watch Network for members of Congress to carry out unannounced visits to facilities to conduct vital oversight.  

Members of Congress can also work to advance key legislative measures to scale back the detention system. The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, re-introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Adam Smith in the House, would scale back the profit-drive system, and enact guardrails and oversight mechanisms to protect civil and human rights. The Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed a slate of legislative proposals to rein in the Trump administration’s rampant abuses stemming from its reckless immigration policies. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has released its plan to overhaul ICE to ensure accountability and strengthen community-based protections. Senate leaders have spoken out against the dramatic government overreach targeting our immigrant communities and launched investigations into deaths in detention. All of these efforts are critical to save lives and promote an immigration system that dismantles cages and funds community needs.  

Finally, it is imperative for elected officials to protect and increase funding for legal services for immigrant communities. The Trump administration has slashed already appropriated funds for legal orientation programs, leaving thousands stranded in detention facing a complex legal system with no support.  Congress can use the appropriations process to protect funding for legal orientation programs and state and local governments can bolster funding for access to legal counsel. Access to counsel often determines whether someone is allowed to remain safely in their community or is deported to harm, permanently separated from families.  

*Names have been changed to protect individuals’ privacy.