Immigrant advocates, elected officials call for release of Chicago mother detained by ICE

Chicago Tribune

20 hours ago

When Gladis Yolanda Chavez finally had a chance to speak to her attorney, two days after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the first thing she asked him to do was keep her daughter safe.
Chavez's 10-year-old daughter was in school when her mother was detained at an ICE check-in Wednesday, one of an estimated 20 people who were rounded up during surprise check-ins at the federal agency's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program offices in Chicago. Similar arrests were reported that day in New York, San Jose and Birmingham.
Chavez and about 20 others were still at the ICE processing center in Broadview Friday morning. Since the facility is not a detention center, something prohibited in Illinois due to the state's Way Forward Act, there are no beds. So they had been sleeping on the floor and sitting around on the few chairs available, she told her lawyers and supporters, who were finally able to see her Friday.
She'd been difficult to locate, her attorneys said, because Chavez and others recently detained had not been added to the ICE detainee online locator system, typically the only way for families to find their loved ones after they've been detained.
If you're arrested by ICE in Illinois, what happens next? Legal experts explain the process.'We are angry, and this is not the end. We will continue to visualize how ICE is engaging and exposing their racist tactics targeting immigrants of color,' said Antonio Gutierrez, a co-founder and strategic coordinator of Organized Communities Against Deportations, where Chavez worked. 'This is fascism and racism at its finest example, while having the U.S. government doing illegal kidnapping, coercion and human trafficking without orders of removal.'
Supporters of Chavez, elected officials and her attorneys spoke at a news conference Friday in front of the Broadview processing center to demand ICE release Chavez and others detained on Wednesday.
A.J. Johnson Reyes, one of Chavez's lawyers and a member of Beyond Legal Aid, said that while an ICE agent he spoke to before showed his desire to help, he said the agent told Reyes could no longer do so because now 'he is following orders.'
'They are forced to put their humanity aside,' Reyes said. Still, he said, his team is committed to doing everything legally possible to stop Chavez's deportation.
The lawyers sought two stays of removal in an attempt to stop the deportation. The temporary stay was granted by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Reyes. Another request for a stay was submitted with ICE, but not granted.
While they remain hopeful, they're bracing for the worst.
At any point, Chavez could be put on a plane back to her native Honduras or to a detention facility across the country, said Xanat Sobrevilla, a longtime friend of Chavez and member of OCAD.
'She was completely dedicated to her daughter,' Sobrevilla said in tears.
Chavez served as a community organizer for OCAD, an organization that provides resources and legal aid to undocumented individuals facing deportation to guarantee a right to due process.
Ironically, as Chavez urged others to comply with the law, she was detained.
According to her supporters, Chavez received a message on June 2 to report to the ISAP office at 2245 S. Michigan Ave for a 'check-in,' despite already being subject to electronic monitoring via an ankle bracelet.
She arrived on Wednesday with her two attorneys, they said. But after more than 90 minutes, she was handcuffed and ICE agents ordered her attorneys to leave. She was being detained.
Chavez arrived from Honduras more than a decade ago, seeking refuge from extreme poverty and violence in her home country. She lived on the city's Northwest Side and had been attending routine check-ins with ICE for nearly eight years.
The system — which required her to also wear an ankle monitor the last two months — allowed for individuals like Chavez, who are not considered a threat or had an ongoing immigration case, an alternative to detention and deportation.
What was meant to be a routine check-in ICE has, for many, become a turning point.
Agents have broad discretion to decide whether individuals can remain in the country or face removal. But advocates warn that new quotas imposed by the Department of Homeland Security are leaving little room for discretion or compassion — even for those who have lived in the United States for more than a decade.
Though she has become the face of this most recent ICE operation in Chicago, there are dozens of families waiting for help and clarity, Gutierrez said.
And there are dozens of parents leaving behind their U.S. children, he said.
Many were detained during a surprise check-in at the ISAP Chicago office even after having complied fully with every requirement imposed by ICE, including wearing an ankle monitor, supporters said.
Outside the Broadview facility, Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said that the new operations were part of 'Trump's racist agenda,' and that they are committed to continuing to organize to 'make sure that people know their rights.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez of the 33rd Ward, in which Chavez has been living, said that she, too, would advocate for immigrant rights despite the clash with ICE agents outside the facility on Wednesday, where she and other aldermen said they were roughed up.
'We will take the risks necessary to protect our community,' she said.