Federal judge orders family detained by ICE at Millennium Park to remain in the U.S. until Monday
A federal judge in Chicago ordered immigration authorities not to remove from the country a family detained Sunday in front of Crown Fountain at Millennium Park until Monday, when he’s scheduled a hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
The National Immigrant Justice Center is fighting in court on behalf of Alfa Nohemi Chavez Alvarez, Jaime Misael Ramirez Ambrosio and their two minor children. Their arrest has also been cited in broader litigation from the National Immigrant Justice Center alleging warrantless arrests by federal authorities.
“The family simply wanted to enjoy the warm Sunday afternoon in Millennium Park at their daughter’s insistence,” lawyers for the immigrant rights group wrote in a recent court filing. “Now, [the Department of Homeland Security] has already transferred Jaime to detention in Texas.”
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old woman recently described in a separate court filing how she watched agents tackle her father to the ground, zip-tie his hands behind his back and haul him away in a black-colored SUV after he came to pick her up from work last week at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn.
They’re among the stories that have been appearing in federal court documents since the start of the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” nearly a month ago. DHS officials say they’ve arrested more than 800 people in the campaign that targets criminals seeking the protection of so-called sanctuary policies in Illinois and Chicago.
In the case of the family detained at Millennium Park, the family’s lawyers explained that Alvarez and Ambrosio are Guatemalan citizens who came to the United States with their children in December 2023.
Their daughter apparently had to act as a translator during the Sunday arrest, which came as U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolled downtown and in River North in a highly visible show of force.
Ambrosio was taken to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, and Alvarez and the children were detained near O’Hare Airport. Court records show that Ambrosio has since been moved to a processing center in Texas.
DHS records show Ambrosio is subject to a final order of removal, according to federal authorities.
The National Immigrant Justice Center insists the family was illegally detained. U.S. District Judge Sunil Harjani on Monday ordered the government not to remove them from the United States until Monday, when he scheduled the hearing. He wrote that the order “does not reflect the court’s view on the merits” of the family’s claim.
“Rather, this stay is intended to preserve the status quo,” he wrote.
The judge also ordered that they not be removed from northern Illinois, but Ambrosio had already been moved to Texas by then.
Separately, lawyers for Mexican citizen Francisco Mejia Olalde say he was detained Sept. 22 while picking up his U.S. citizen daughter from work at MacNeal Hospital. His daughter, a registered nurse there, described the incident in a recent court filing.
She explained that it began when a “black colored SUV-type car with tinted windows pulled up from an alley … and drove directly towards my dad’s car.” She said her father got out of his car, and then multiple people “all dressed in tactical vests … all with noticeable guns/tasers holstered to their waists, and wearing facial coverings … all rushed out of their cars and began to run towards my dad.”
“By the time I got out of the car, I saw my dad already on the floor, with dirt on his face and dirt stains on his clothing, without his shoes on, and with these individuals holding my dad down on the ground while they zip-tied his hands behind his back,” she said. “None of these individuals identified themselves to either me or my father throughout this whole encounter. Only one individual had lettering on the back of his tactical vest that stated ‘POLICE U.S. Customs and Border Protection,’ and others just had ‘POLICE’ in small lettering.”
“He was only there that morning because of me,” she added. “Otherwise, he would’ve been at home waiting to eat breakfast as I drove myself home.”
An ICE official wrote last week that Mejia-Olalde “remains detained pending a hearing before the Immigration Court in Kansas City, Missouri,” set for next week.