‘Independence Day’ will be any time before Friday for hundreds of Chicago and Midwestern immigrants who were arrested and detained by U.S. law enforcement.
A release order was issued Wednesday morning from District Judge Jeff Cummings, and came from a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) after Operation Midway Blitz resulted in the arrests of thousands of allegedly undocumented immigrants.
Those arrests were allegedly in violation of a consent decree prohibiting the detention of individuals arrested without a warrant on immigration charges in the state of Illinois, with that alleged violation prompting a lawsuit challenging the detentions.
As part of the order, the Department of Homeland Security will be required to release an unspecified number of the plaintiffs on bond in coming days, and they’ll remain free on bond pending the outcome of their individual cases.
In addition to the potential release of individuals, the judge also issued an order for DHS to identify the total number of individuals taken into custody as part of Operation Midway Blitz by Friday, November 21.
Hundreds of individuals detained by ICE, CBP in Chicago could be released: Judge
