As federal brokers descend on Chicago this week for a renewed spherical of immigration raids, a Marshall Venture evaluation exhibits what occurred to round 1,600 individuals arrested in an identical 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 circumstances.
The evaluation of not too long ago 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 those that had been arrested had been rapidly 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 little one care facilities, and used chemical brokers like tear fuel on protesters. In response to the usually chaotic and high-profile raids, metropolis residents blew whistles to alert neighbors of approaching brokers and arranged “magic college buses” to accompany youngsters to highschool.
The Marshall Venture analyzed ICE knowledge that features arrests and detentions by means of the center of October, probably the most present detailed information 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 army base, the information exhibits.
“With out that infrastructure, with out mass detention, you may’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 Information Venture, allowed The Marshall Venture to hint people as they had been transferred between amenities, and in some instances, deported.
President Donald Trump has quickly ramped up immigration arrests in an try to deport 1 million individuals in his first yr again in workplace. On the identical time, a brand new Division of Homeland Safety coverage denies detainees the suitable to bond hearings in immigration court docket, main the variety of individuals in detention to succeed in record-highs.
Analyzing the information of people that had been arrested within the Chicago space, The Marshall Venture discovered that just about all of them had been first held at a facility in Broadview, Illinois, a suburb west of town. In November, a federal decide issued a brief restraining order compelling ICE to deal with circumstances there.
The order cites “severe circumstances” on the facility, just like these reported at detention facilities throughout the nation, and requires ICE to supply entry to sleeping area, bedding, toiletries, medicine, often 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 loads 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, instructed Congress that she “begged for assist” however was ignored by brokers and “thrown into a dirty jail cell,” till blood in her urine prompted them to get her medical care.
After being booked into ICE custody, greater than 380 individuals arrested within the Chicago space had been transported to a not too long ago revived detention facility within the rural city of Baldwin, Michigan. The power, North Lake Processing Middle, tops the checklist 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 personal jail firms. It reopened in June underneath a brand new contract with the Division of Homeland Safety, changing into the biggest immigration detention heart within the Midwest.
Nahomi Ramirez, whose father is detained there, stated North Lake nonetheless appears and feels just like the jail it as soon as was.
“It’s concrete partitions, it’s barbed wire fences all over the place, like for nobody to flee,” Ramirez stated. “I haven’t even totally processed that in my mind, to be trustworthy.”
Her father, Fernando Ramirez, a semitruck driver arrested in Indiana, instructed her he was moved to a freezing-cold, filthy ward with different individuals who have diabetes. The detainees within the ward weren’t at all times consumed time, which brought about 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 issues prompted her to go to the ability.
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 circumstances for detainees.
Eighteen individuals, greater than half of them youngsters, arrested within the Chicago space had been transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Middle in Texas, run by CoreCivic. President Joe Biden ended the observe of detaining youngsters with their households in 2021, however Trump not too long ago reversed that coverage and resumed operations.
Households at Dilley have testified in court docket filings to troubling circumstances, together with worms and mildew in meals and little entry to training or recreation for kids. They stated their youngsters had been so distressed that that they had hit their very own faces and dirty themselves, regardless of being potty-trained.
In 2021, Illinois banned native jails from supplying detention area to ICE, leaving the company to depend on neighboring states as a substitute.
No less than 300 individuals from the Chicago raids went by means of the Clay County Justice Middle in Indiana, a jail that has lengthy relied on federal detention contracts to complement the county price range. After a heated public debate, Clay County opened up a brand new, 285-bed wing final yr to accommodate immigrants. ICE book-ins on the jail practically tripled within the first half of the yr, in response to 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. Individuals have developed infections from sleeping on flooring, she stated, and are usually not being supplied with sufficient hygiene merchandise throughout menstruation.
The circumstances and the indefinitely lengthy stays in detention have led many detainees to signal “voluntary departure” agreements to depart the U.S., she stated.
“This complete factor is about deterrence,” Valenzuela stated. “So it’s like, how can we make individuals as depressing as potential in these amenities in order that they only say, ‘Screw it, I wish to depart.’”
Different counties in Indiana are additionally cashing in on federal contracts. Immigration detention expanded to 4 extra Indiana county jails this yr, in response to an evaluation from the Nationwide Immigrant Justice Middle. Information exhibits Marion County Jail in Indianapolis held a minimum of 42 individuals arrested within the Chicago raids.
Noelle Sensible, 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, notably when it lacks detention area close by.
A new Texas detention heart, largely composed of gigantic tents, is an archetype for the varieties of enormous amenities the Trump administration plans to proceed constructing. Greater than 50 individuals arrested round Chicago in the course of 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 army base in El Paso, Texas, started holding immigrants in August, earlier than its development was completed.
Greater than 100 Chicago detainees remained there in mid-October. By the top of November, the camp hit a mean day by day inhabitants of over 2,700.
The Camp East Montana detention facility at Fort Bliss army base in El Paso, Texas, in September 2025.
Within the few months that it has been operational, the camp has been the topic of reviews of abuse and harmful circumstances. In September, The Washington Publish reported that an inside ICE inspection report confirmed it failed to satisfy a minimum of 60 detention requirements.
This month, civil rights teams despatched a letter to federal officers detailing abuses based mostly on interviews with dozens of individuals detained at Fort Bliss. The letter claimed federal officers used threats of violence in an try to pressure detainees to cross the border into Mexico, regardless of having migrated from Cuba. The letter additionally particulars reviews of sexual abuse, bathrooms overflowing into sleeping areas, and detainees being denied entry to medicine and ample meals.
The household of Victor Miranda, a landscaper from the South Facet of Chicago arrested in the course of the blitz, stated his medical circumstances 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 respiration tools he makes use of to sleep.
“They hold 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 probability, it is best to simply surrender.”
Miranda is considered one of a whole lot of individuals detained in the course of 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 coated by a consent decree — however stated a decide might overview particular person instances to find out who needs 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 help committee with different moms that organized speedy response techniques in the course of the first spate of raids. The group continues to help 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 youngsters know that I’m on the market working with the group,” Tobes stated. “And that they’re secure, their pals are secure, and we’re going to do every little thing we will to assist them.”
