Ninety-seven percent of hundreds of undocumented immigrants swept up in Chicago’s recent immigration raids had no criminal record at the time of their arrest, a Department of Justice document shows.
The document, submitted by the agency late last week as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in federal court, contains 614 names of immigrants arrested recently, most of them under the DHS’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” which launched in September.
The government’s own documents contradict the Trump administration’s narrative that its ongoing raids are targeting and arresting violent criminals who are in the country illegally or are what the agency routinely calls “the worst of the worst.” It also may violate a 2022 federal consent decree that put strong conditions on making arrests without warrants or probable cause. Most of these arrests are likely to have violated these conditions, according to lawyers representing the migrants in the consent decree.
“You look at this list and it is very clear they just did a broad sweep of anybody and not a targeted sweep of people who were here unlawfully and that they knew were likely to flee or were criminals as they lead you to believe,” said Michelle Garcia, deputy legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, one of the groups representing undocumented migrants in the consent decree.
Of the 614 people on the list, 598 do not have criminal records.
Only 16 — or 2.6%— have a criminal record. Four of them have criminal convictions that include domestic battery, DUI, indecent exposure and kidnapping. One person was deemed a national security risk, another one was labeled a foreign criminal. No additional information on those two cases was provided.
DHS regularly says that it is taking murders and rapists off the streets. However, none of the people on this list was convicted or arrested for murder or rape.
The list was first reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Asked to respond to NPR’s specific questions about how this list contradicts the government’s claims that ongoing immigration sweeps across the country are targeting “the worst of the worst” criminals, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “Yes. It’s basic math. There have been over 5,000 arrests” in the Chicago area.
“70% of illegal aliens ICE arrested across the country have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S.,” McLaughlin wrote in an email.
It’s not clear where McLaughlin’s arrest figure comes from since DHS has not released data on its arrests.
The federal judge in Illinois overseeing this case, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, has extended the consent decree until early next year. This means that more and more undocumented immigrants who have been arrested recently could be eligible for release.
Judge Cummings has also ordered the government to provide by Nov. 19 the names and threat levels of the remaining approximately 3,200 people who have been arrested since June 11th.
The Trump administration has appealed the judge’s ruling.
The attorneys for the migrants say their clients were simply swept up in Operation Midway Blitz. Those on the DOJ list are eligible to be temporarily released either on bond or with an ankle monitor or any other monitoring device while their cases continue.
The vast majority of the people on this list pose a low or medium safety risk if released, according to the Justice Department.
“These are hardworking people who have families and ties to this country and are members of our community,” ACLU attorney Garcia said. “And we are doing everything possible to fight to have them remain with their families and their communities.”
The DOJ’s list only includes names of people in detention as of October 22. According to the list, some of them have already been deported to their native countries or voluntarily removed.
The Trump administration has recorded many of the operations, including one in the South Shore neighborhood where masked federal agents rappelled from a helicopter onto a residential building. According to DHS, 37 people were arrested there, but only two of them were accused of having ties to gangs. The other 35 had entered the country illegally. Some had criminal charges.
The surge in federal agents have also pushed community members to fight back.
During the operation community members responded with street protests in downtown Chicago, and volunteers regularly patrolled the streets alerting residents of the presence of immigration agents.
Transcript:
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Over the weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Department of Homeland Security launched its latest enforcement action targeting undocumented immigrants. DHS calls it Operation Charlotte’s Web and says it’s going after violent criminal immigrants. This is similar to a crackdown that DHS launched in Chicago in September. However, a recent court filing there shows that hundreds of immigrants arrested in Chicago have no criminal record. NPR’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán has been following this and joins us now. Hi.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: Sergio, tell us about this court filing in Chicago and its connection to this operation that DHS is calling Operation Midway Blitz.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. So the Department of Justice late last week submitted a list that contained the names of 614 immigrants arrested recently in Chicago. These are arrests a federal judge says may have violated a 2022 federal consent decree, so this is part of an ongoing legal case. Now, that settlement puts strong conditions on making arrests without warrants or probable cause. The attorneys for these people say their clients were simply swept up in Operation Midway Blitz. This means they are eligible to be temporarily released, either on bond or with an ankle monitor or any other monitoring device, while their cases continue.
SUMMERS: Now, the Trump administration says that the surge of federal agents in Chicago has had an impact – that it’s decreased crime. Officials repeatedly say that they’ve taken the worst of the worst, as they say, immigrant criminals off the streets. Does the list submitted by the DOJ contradict that?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: It does. Out of the 614 people on the list, 598 do not have a criminal record. That’s 97% of the immigrants arrested. So per this document, Juana, most of the people in this sample have not committed a crime. Only 16 – or 2.6% – have a criminal history. Of those 16, four of them have criminal convictions. They range from domestic battery to DUI to indecent exposure and kidnapping. One person was labeled a national security risk. Another had a drug arrest. DHS, you know, regularly says that it is taking murderers and rapists off the streets. However, none of the people on this list was convicted or arrested for murder or rape. The list was first reported by the Chicago Tribune. NPR also has access to it.
Now, I talked to Michelle Garcia. She’s the deputy legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, one of the organizations representing the migrants in the federal consent decree.
MICHELLE GARCIA: You look at this list and it is very clear that they just did a broad sweep of anybody and not a targeted sweep of people who were here unlawfully and that they knew were likely to flee or were criminals, as they lead you to believe.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: A DHS spokesperson did not reply to NPR’s specific questions about how this list contradicts the government’s narrative that they are targeting, quote, “the worst of the worst” of criminals. By the way, Juana, the vast majority of the people on this list pose a low or medium safety risk if released, according to the Justice Department.
SUMMERS: Now, DHS has said that since Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago launched in September, more than 4,000 undocumented criminal immigrants have been arrested. But the list that you’ve been talking about, Sergio, it only includes 614 people. So what do we know, if anything, about the rest of those that were arrested there?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: We are likely to learn more about that in the coming days. This list includes names of people in detention as of October 22. According to the list, some of them have already been deported or their – to their native countries or voluntarily removed.
Now, the federal judge in Illinois overseeing this case, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, has extended the consent decree until early next year. This means that more and more undocumented immigrants who have been arrested could be eligible for release. Judge Cummings has also ordered the government to provide the names and threat levels of the remaining approximately 3,200 people who have been arrested since June 11, and the government has already appealed the judge’s ruling.
SUMMERS: NPR’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, thank you.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You’re welcome.
