As federal brokers descend on Chicago this week for a renewed spherical of immigration raids, a Marshall Undertaking evaluation reveals what occurred to round 1,600 folks arrested in an analogous operation this fall. Our reporting reveals how federal businesses moved them by means of the Trump administration’s expanded community of detention amenities — many rife with complaints of inhumane situations.
The evaluation of lately launched Immigration and Customs Enforcement knowledge discovered that Illinois noticed the sharpest improve in ICE arrests of any U.S. state within the first 5 weeks after the blitz started. And people who had been arrested had been shortly shuttled to a sprawling array of detention amenities that reduce a large swath down the center of the nation.
When federal brokers launched “Operation Halfway Blitz” in September, they arrested 1000’s of individuals, at occasions close to colleges or baby care facilities, and used chemical brokers like tear gasoline on protesters. In response to the customarily chaotic and high-profile raids, metropolis residents blew whistles to alert neighbors of approaching brokers and organized “magic college buses” to accompany kids to highschool.
The Marshall Undertaking analyzed ICE knowledge that features arrests and detentions by means of the center of October, essentially the most present detailed data publicly accessible. Individuals who ICE arrested throughout that point had been later detained in 13 states, at county jails, privately run detention facilities and a quickly constructed facility on a navy base, the information reveals.
“With out that infrastructure, with out mass detention, you’ll be able to’t perform mass raids or mass deportation,” stated Stacy Suh, program director at Detention Watch Community, a coalition of grassroots organizations that seeks to finish immigration detention.
The ICE knowledge, obtained by the Deportation Knowledge Undertaking, allowed The Marshall Undertaking to hint people as they had been transferred between amenities, and in some circumstances, deported.
President Donald Trump has quickly ramped up immigration arrests in an try to deport 1 million folks in his first 12 months again in workplace. On the similar time, a brand new Division of Homeland Safety coverage denies detainees the suitable to bond hearings in immigration court docket, main the variety of folks in detention to succeed in record-highs.
Inspecting the data of people that had been arrested within the Chicago space, The Marshall Undertaking discovered that almost all of them had been first held at a facility in Broadview, Illinois, a suburb west of the town. In November, a federal choose issued a brief restraining order compelling ICE to handle situations there.
The order cites “critical situations” on the facility, much like these reported at detention facilities throughout the nation, and requires ICE to offer entry to sleeping house, bedding, toiletries, remedy, repeatedly cleaned areas, common meals, phone calls and clear details about paperwork the federal government asks detainees to signal.
The suburban facility, which has been the positioning of a number of protests towards the immigration raids, was the primary cease for a lot of who had been arrested off the road as federal brokers moved by means of the area. Dayanne Figueroa, a U.S. citizen who was pulled from her SUV by federal brokers in a Chicago neighborhood, was detained on the Broadview facility. Figueroa, who was recovering from kidney surgical procedures when she was taken to Broadview, advised Congress that she “begged for assist” however was ignored by brokers and “thrown into a grimy jail cell,” till blood in her urine prompted them to get her medical care.
After being booked into ICE custody, greater than 380 folks arrested within the Chicago space had been transported to a lately revived detention facility within the rural city of Baldwin, Michigan. The ability, North Lake Processing Heart, tops the record of locations the place the most individuals had been held within the first weeks of the Operation Halfway Blitz raids.
North Lake, which is run by GEO Group, was beforehand a federal jail till the Biden administration ended Division of Justice contracts with non-public jail corporations. It reopened in June underneath a brand new contract with the Division of Homeland Safety, turning into the biggest immigration detention heart within the Midwest.
Nahomi Ramirez, whose father is detained there, stated North Lake nonetheless seems to be and feels just like the jail it as soon as was.
“It’s concrete partitions, it’s barbed wire fences in every single place, like for nobody to flee,” Ramirez stated. “I haven’t even absolutely processed that in my mind, to be sincere.”
Ramirez’s father, a semitruck driver arrested in Indiana, advised her he was moved to a freezing-cold, filthy ward with different individuals who have diabetes. The detainees within the ward weren’t all the time consumed time, which induced their blood sugar to crash, Ramirez stated, and her father’s allergy to the blankets in his room has left him huddling underneath his jacket for heat.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has reported receiving comparable complaints from North Lake detainees about insufficient meals, lack of medical care and freezing temperatures, in addition to visitation points, lack of entry to authorized counsel and suicide makes an attempt. The considerations prompted her to go to the power.
Since Trump’s second time period started, extra privately run immigration amenities have opened, or reopened, across the U.S. to maintain up with the tempo of raids and detentions. In the meantime, advocates have warned of inhumane situations for detainees.
Eighteen folks, greater than half of them kids, arrested within the Chicago space had been transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Heart in Texas, run by CoreCivic. President Joe Biden ended the follow of detaining kids with their households in 2021, however Trump lately reversed that coverage and resumed operations.
Households at Dilley have testified in court docket filings to troubling situations, together with worms and mildew in meals and little entry to training or recreation for kids. They stated their kids had been so distressed that they’d hit their very own faces and dirty themselves, regardless of being potty-trained.
In 2021, Illinois banned native jails from supplying detention house to ICE, leaving the company to depend on neighboring states as a substitute.
At the least 300 folks from the Chicago raids went by means of the Clay County Justice Heart in Indiana, a jail that has lengthy relied on federal detention contracts to complement the county funds. After a heated public debate, Clay County opened up a brand new, 285-bed wing final 12 months to accommodate immigrants. ICE book-ins on the jail practically tripled within the first half of the 12 months, in keeping with the IndyStar.
As part of a lawsuit filed in 2022, attorneys for detainees declare the jail wrongfully handed inspection in violation of ICE requirements and that ICE’s lack of oversight has allowed the county to misappropriate funds meant for the care and custody of individuals detained.
Robin Valenzuela, co-founder of Indiana AID, which helps immigrants detained within the state, stated even with the enlargement, the Clay County facility is overcrowded. Folks have developed infections from sleeping on flooring, she stated, and usually are not being supplied with sufficient hygiene merchandise throughout menstruation.
The situations and the indefinitely lengthy stays in detention have led many detainees to signal “voluntary departure” agreements to go away the U.S., she stated.
“This complete factor is about deterrence,” Valenzuela stated. “So it’s like, how can we make folks as depressing as attainable in these amenities in order that they simply say, ‘Screw it, I wish to go away.’”
Different counties in Indiana are additionally cashing in on federal contracts. Immigration detention expanded to 4 extra Indiana county jails this 12 months, in keeping with an evaluation from the Nationwide Immigrant Justice Heart. Knowledge reveals Marion County Jail in Indianapolis held not less than 42 folks arrested within the Chicago raids.
Noelle Good, principal analysis affiliate on the Vera Institute of Justice, stated ICE considerably expanded its jail contracts because the company ramps up enforcement, and that it’s more and more counting on transfers to out-of-state amenities, significantly when it lacks detention house close by.
A brand new Texas detention heart, principally composed of gigantic tents, is an archetype for the varieties of enormous amenities the Trump administration plans to proceed constructing. Greater than 50 folks arrested round Chicago through the federal enforcement blitz had been final held at Camp East Montana earlier than they had been deported. The grounds, positioned on the Fort Bliss navy base in El Paso, Texas, started holding immigrants in August, earlier than its building was completed.
Greater than 100 Chicago detainees remained there in mid-October. By the top of November, the camp hit a median every day inhabitants of over 2,700.
The Camp East Montana detention facility at Fort Bliss navy base in El Paso, Texas, in September 2025.
Within the few months that it has been operational, the camp has been the topic of stories of abuse and harmful situations. In September, The Washington Submit reported that an inner ICE inspection report confirmed it failed to fulfill not less than 60 detention requirements.
This month, civil rights teams despatched a letter to federal officers detailing abuses primarily based on interviews with dozens of individuals detained at Fort Bliss. The letter claimed federal officers used threats of violence in an try to power detainees to cross the border into Mexico, regardless of having migrated from Cuba. The letter additionally particulars stories of sexual abuse, bogs overflowing into sleeping areas, and detainees being denied entry to remedy and sufficient meals.
The household of Victor Miranda, a landscaper from the South Facet of Chicago arrested through the blitz, stated his medical situations worsened after his switch to Fort Bliss. Miranda’s 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, stated her father has not had correct meals or been given the respiratory gear he makes use of to sleep.
“They preserve calling them criminals, and so they inform them there that the legal professionals aren’t going to do something for them,” stated Ashley, translating for her mom, who speaks Spanish. “That you don’t have any likelihood, it’s best to simply hand over.”
Miranda is one in all tons of of individuals detained through the Chicago raids who had been allegedly arrested by ICE with out warrants.
On Dec. 11, a federal appeals court docket blocked the collective launch of individuals arrested with out warrants in Illinois and different states lined by a consent decree — however stated a choose might overview particular person circumstances to find out who ought to be freed. If the Trump administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, that might create extra obstacles and delays.
Within the meantime, Chicago residents and group organizations are readying themselves for extra raids and arrests with the return of the federal blitz.
Erin Tobes, a stay-at-home mom within the Bowmanville neighborhood, launched a mutual assist committee with different moms that organized speedy response techniques through the first spate of raids. The group continues to assist households of individuals detained and deported by creating GoFundMes, coordinating authorized illustration and offering staples like diapers and meals.
“I’m proud to have the ability to put that ahead and let my children know that I’m on the market working with the group,” Tobes stated. “And that they’re protected, their associates are protected, and we’re going to do every part we are able to to assist them.”
