CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Federal immigration agents have a set of rules to arrest people in the country illegally, in part set by a court decision limiting how agents arrest someone without a judicial warrant or probable cause.
Critics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they’re operating outside those rules, including Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes.
Fuentes was briefly detained by federal agents after questioning if they had a warrant for an immigrant receiving medical care in a local emergency room. In an interview with NewsNation, she accused ICE of waging war on Chicago’s Latino communities.
Fuentes said she was never shown a judicial warrant at the hospital. Instead, she was told repeatedly to leave, with agents telling Fuentes she would be arrested if she did not comply with their orders.
“This is typical behavior of ICE agents across the city of Chicago,” Fuentes told NewsNation, adding, “What we’re seeing is a real assault on the people of Chicago.”
The agency has rebuffed critics who state ICE is operating outside the law, saying its officers always comply with all court orders and reiterated its push to target the “worst of the worst” criminals.
“We’re going out on crime-based intelligence reports and targeting. And if we get our target and there are other people that are not legally supposed to be here, then we’re going to go ahead and take them into custody,” acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told NewsNation on Thursday.
Judge rules against ICE over ‘collateral arrests’
So-called “collateral arrests” made while ICE is on patrol have become a point of contention in the courts.
In Illinois and several other states, ICE officers must comply with a 2022 consent decree, in which ICE agreed to conditions under which someone could be arrested. That includes pre-determining whether probable cause existed that the person being sought is in the United States illegally and whether they are a flight risk.
A federal judge extended the decision to 2026 last week and found that ICE had likely violated the limitation on “warrantless arrests.”
ICE states on its website that it is allowed to make arrests without a warrant, similar to other law enforcement agencies.
“ICE officers and agents can initiate consensual encounters and speak with people, briefly detain aliens when they have reasonable suspicion that the aliens are illegally present in the United States, and arrest people they believe are illegal aliens,” it says.
Under the consent decree, warrantless arrests are put under guardrails. According to the document, officers can arrest someone without a warrant if they have “reason to believe that the alien to be arrested is present in the United States in violation of any U.S. immigration law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for the arrest.”
During last week’s ruling to extend the decision, the judge took exception to the agency’s use of I-200 warrants, which critics argued allowed ICE to make “collateral arrests” without a judge’s signature. In the consent decree decision, the federal judge said ICE lacked the authority to issue I-200s in the field.
The federal judge’s decision on the consent decree allows for the National Immigrant Justice Center to seek the release of at least 200 detainees who the group claimed were illegally arrested by federal officers, including 22 who have been detained by ICE this year since President Donald Trump took office. The Department of Homeland Security is fighting the judge’s decision.
ICE says it is following the law
Tricia McLauglin, the assistant DHS secretary, said in an emailed statement to ABC7 in Chicago that DHS “complies with all lawful court orders and is addressing the recent legal ruling in court.”
Spokespersons for DHS and ICE did not respond to requests for comment from NewsNation on the judge’s consent decree decision.
“We just don’t go out there, you know, willy nilly, not knowing who we’re going after,” Lyons said about ICE operations Thursday. “We know exactly when these guys and gals step out of the office, they have their target of who they’re going for, right? So there are so many individuals in the United States that have been ordered legally deported or removed from the country, had their due process.”
During a NewsNation town hall on Wednesday, Border Czar Tom Homan said nearly 70% of those arrested by ICE are public safety or national security threats, while the remaining 30% are collateral arrests. “Our job is the removal of these gang members,” Homan said.
As of Sept. 21, more than 59,000 people remain in ICE detention centers across the country. Of those, 17,007 have criminal convictions, while an additional 15,009 have pending criminal charges, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. A total of 27,746 have “other immigration-related” charges, meaning they have a previous order for removal or have overstayed a visa, according to the organization.
This week, DHS officials announced that more than 1,500 people have been arrested as part of Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago.