CHICAGO (NewsNation) — A federal judge in Chicago has issued a temporary restraining order, ordering the U.S. government to provide bedding and personal items to detainees at the ICE processing center in suburban Broadview.
The Broadview facility has remained the main processing center during the two-month federal immigration enforcement effort known as “Operation Midway Blitz”. Federal officials have announced more than 3,200 arrests during the operation, but sources told NewsNation this week that nearly 4,000 people have been arrested. The processing center has also been the scene of weekly protests and clashes between federal agents and officers and protesters.
Under the order, the federal government is required to provide clean bedding mats and other bedding, along with adequate sleeping space for detainees while they are being held there. Other personal care items, such as soap and toilet paper, must be provided, and the government must ensure there are enough bathroom and shower facilities for those who are held at the facility overnight. The order also requires holding rooms inside the facility to be cleaned twice a day.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Associated Press detainees are provided with three meals a day and have phones to communicate with family members and attorneys.
“Despite hoaxes spread by criminal illegal aliens, the complicit media, and now an activist judge, the ICE Broadview Facility does NOT have subprime conditions,” Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
An ICE spokesperson did not immediately return a message from NewsNation on Thursday seeking comment on the judge’s order.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued the temporary restraining order on Wednesday, a day after testimony was heard over Broadview conditions. Pablo Moreno Gonzalez, a 56-year-old construction worker who was born in Mexico and who has spent the past 35 years in the U.S., testified this week that he was packed into a cell with an estimated 150 other people, WTTW reported.
He testified that because of a lack of beds, he was forced to sleep in a chair and had to step over others sleeping on the floor to move from place to place.
Gettleman ruled Wednesday that conditions inside the ICE processing center do not “pass constitutional muster.”
“People shouldn’t be sleeping in plastic chairs. They shouldn’t be sleeping on the floor,” Gettleman said.
Moreno Gonzalez testified he was kept at the facility between Wednesday and Friday for one week and was never provided a hot meal. He testified detainees were only given three bottles of water and were denied more water if they asked, according to the report.
“It was too much. It was just too much. I just can’t deal with it,” he testified this week before breaking down in tears.
Moreno Gonzalez and Felipe Agustin Zamacona filed a class action lawsuit last week, alleging what attorneys for the two plaintiffs characterized as a human rights crisis at the facility. In addition to complaints about conditions inside the processing center, the lawsuit also alleges that detainees are not given access to attorneys and that detainees are pressured by federal officers to sign deportation forms, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Immigration rights advocates and elected officials say they have been denied access to the inside of the Broadview facility to witness conditions for themselves. Gettleman denied a plaintiff’s motion on Wednesday to be granted access to the inside of the processing center, according to reports.
Gettleman ordered government attorneys to provide him with an update on the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to comply with the order by Friday. Another hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 19.