This is part of our series of daily recaps of ICE activity in the Chicago region. Have a tip we should check out? Email [email protected].
CHICAGO — Hundreds of people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents around Chicago over the past few months could be released, according to a new federal ruling.
On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled that ICE agents have been violating a 2022 consent decree banning warrantless arrests unless agents have probable cause to believe someone is in the United States unlawfully and is a flight risk.
Cummings concluded that attorneys for the National Immigration Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois provided enough evidence to show that ICE arrested 22 people without a warrant in violation of the consent decree and federal law. The 22 people, who were arrested in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, were all released on bond and are no longer in custody. Cummings ordered ICE to reimburse all of their bond payments and to lift any imposed conditions of release.
Cummings also extended the settlement agreement to Feb. 2 and ordered ICE officials to make monthly reports with the names and identification numbers of all people arrested without a warrant. ICE will also produce an arrest report that justifies why the individual was arrested without a warrant. According to the ruling, ICE officials have until Oct. 22 to release warrantless arrest data going back to June.
Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation for the National Immigration Justice Center, said his organization has already identified more than 200 people whose arrests likely violated the consent decree. The National Immigration Justice Center will present those arrests to the government to see if they qualify for release or bond reimbursements.
ICE’s data on warrantless arrests going back to June may reveal even more arrests that violate the consent decree, Fleming said during a Wednesday press conference.
“The 200 that I mentioned are the ones that we have independently found. That is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “I suspect that is like 25 percent of the cases that ultimately were potentially violations here.”
The consent decree, which stemmed from a 2018 large-scale ICE enforcement operation in the Chicago area that led to 156 arrests during a weeklong period, was supposed to sunset in May. However, in March, the National Immigration Justice Center and the ACLU of Illinois filed a motion to enforce the consent decree and extend it for three more years. At a hearing in June, Cummings stated that the consent decree remained in effect while the motions were pending.
Federal agents chat during a protest near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at 1930 Beach St. in Broadview, Ill. on Sept. 26, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
The judge concluded that ICE began violating the agreement at the start of the year and completely ceased compliance in June, when its principal legal adviser sent an email to all ICE employees stating that the agreement was terminated despite pending litigation.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in the Chicago area since the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midways Blitz at the start of September. Fleming said one of the strategies ICE has been deploying over the past few weeks has been to “go out with a small list of targets and then use that as a pretext to then sweep up everyone else that they come in contact with.”
“We suspect that the majority of immigration arrests that have taken place in Chicago in the last month are in violation of this order,” attorney Keren Zwick with the National Immigration Justice Center told Block Club.
While Fleming said the ruling will not affect people who have already been deported, he said his office will be communicating with advocates who are working with people currently to ensure they know about the ruling.
“There has been a lot of pressure on individuals to seek voluntary departure and we are in the process of talking to advocates to let them know that this ruling came down, that if their client wants to fight it out and be released and to stay, that they need to resist those pressures,” Fleming said.
Under Cummings’ ruling, ICE is required to reissue a broadcast that the agreement is again in effect “to all ICE officers nationwide.”
In a statement Wednesday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that “DHS complies with all lawful court orders and is addressing this matter with the court.”
Michelle García, co-counsel in the case and ACLU of Illinois’ deputy legal director, called the consent decree a “tool.”
“It is a way for us to challenge those wrongful arrests,” she said. “It is an exciting moment, we have a lot of work to do.”
Happening In Chicago
• On Wednesday, the Northwest Side Rapid Response Team reported sightings of federal agents in Avondale, Belmont Gardens and Logan Square along Belmont Avenue, Pulaski Road and Kimball Avenue. Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th) and county Commissioner Jessica Vásquez reported nine people had been detained in the area.
• ICE and military vehicles were seen in Little Village as well as going north on Pulaski Road and west on 31st Street, according to Berwyn Cicero Rapid Response.
• At 8:45 a.m., agents were seen at the gas station at Belmont and Milwaukee avenues, according to the Northwest Side Rapid Response Team.
• At 1:30 p.m., agents were seen at 61st Street and Springfield Avenue, according to the Southwest Rapid Response Team.
Happening In The Suburbs
• At 11 a.m., federal agents detained a person near 554 Melrose Court in Elgin, according to Elgin Area Rapid Response.
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