"As the Trump administration ratchets up its targeting of immigrant communities across the Chicagoland area, elected officials are looking for any tool they can find to protect their residents from militarized raids and roving bands of Border Patrol officers. Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans banned civil arrests at county courthouses across Chicago this week, preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting and attempting to deport people who show up to public courtrooms for matters unrelated to immigration."
"Immigration violations are a civil, not criminal, offense, despite the Trump administration's repeated attempts to brand them that way. Under a policy established shortly after Trump took office that opened formerly protected areas such as schools and churches to immigration enforcement, ICE agents have arrived at Chicago area courthouses masked and unannounced to arrest people showing up for regular hearings, often without arrest warrants or uniforms clearly identifying them as ICE agents, according to Cook County Commissioner Jessica Vasquez."
Cook County implemented a ban on civil immigration arrests at county courthouses across Chicago to prevent ICE from detaining or deporting people attending public courtrooms for non-immigration matters. The order took effect Tuesday amid federal and local resistance to Operation Midway Blitz, an ICE crackdown tied to weeks of militarized raids and violent arrests. Immigration violations remain civil offenses despite efforts to treat them as criminal. Policies instituted early in the administration opened protected spaces to enforcement, and agents have reportedly arrived masked, unannounced, and sometimes without warrants or clear identification.
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