Immigration agents this week arrested at least two people in the vicinity of the county’s domestic violence-focused courthouse, sparking fears that the enforcement action would have a chilling effect on people seeking orders of protection and other forms of help at the downtown courthouse.
The presence at the facility at 555 W. Harrison St. came as local residents and politicians are bracing for a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Chicago while officials forecast a possible monthlong operation.
“It’s an affront to all the work this country has done over the last 40 years to ensure that victims of domestic violence and sexual assault have access to justice,” said Amanda Pyron, president & CEO of The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence. “There’s no other result to an action like this but a deterrent to victims seeking the safety and justice they deserve.”
The Cook County Public Defender’s Office confirmed to the Tribune that two clients were arrested by immigration agents, a 41-year-old woman on Wednesday and a 40-year-old man on Monday. Officials said they were still gathering information, but said the woman had no criminal background and was not a risk to the public.
The woman who was arrested had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of domestic battery, but the charges were dropped on Wednesday, according to court records.
“When you have this presence … you are instilling this culture of fear that is not well tailored, is not just about the quote, unquote ‘bad guys’ it is about forcing the withdrawal of all people from the criminal legal system,” said Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr. “What is happening right now … has far ranging impacts.”
ICE has not responded to a request for comment.
The courthouse in the West Loop serves as a dedicated hub not only for judges to hear criminal cases involving family and gender-based violence but also for people to secure orders of protection.
Two workers at the courthouse told the Tribune they saw people they believed to be agents in plain clothes around the building on Wednesday.
Tessa Kuipers, who works at an organization that offers support in the courthouse, said she saw three suspected officers in the back parking lot.
“We had to call all of our clients that were scheduled to come to court to let them know to make a decision for their safety,” she said.
As word of the federal agents spread, advocates went to the courthouse to pass around literature to educate people of their rights. They also sought to inform people who may be fearful to come to the courthouse that there are remote options for people seeking orders of protection, as they can appear before a judge via a video call.
“There’s a lot of concerned citizens and concerned neighbors that want to make sure that we’re showing up when ICE is here,” said Rachel Cohen, 31, who stood outside the courthouse to warn people of potential ICE activity on Wednesday and Thursday. “Because we don’t want ICE in our city.”
People can call the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-877-863-6338 to get information and be connected to legal advocates.
“Historically, courthouses — and specifically family courthouses — were not prioritized for ICE presence and so this has been a change of policy in the last few months,” said Margaret Duval, executive director at Ascend Justice. “The reason it was a place that ICE would typically not go to … was you want people to be able to come to court without fear.”
The arrests arrived amid heightened tensions between the city and state and President Donald Trump, who has called Chicago a “hellhole” and threatened to send the National Guard to address violence, though violent crime has fallen in Chicago in recent years.
A federal judge in California also ruled that the administration is prohibited from using the National Guard and military personnel there for law enforcement activities.
But local officials are preparing for a beefed-up federal immigration presence throughout September.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said the Trump administration is “staging military vehicles on federal property,” including at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, as state officials have heard from representatives within the administration that it planned to soon send agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to assist ICE agents in Chicago.