400 ICE Arrests in Chicago Set for Friday Release; Risk List Murky

(CHICAGO) More than 600 people swept up in a major immigration enforcement surge in Chicago are set to walk out of detention in the coming days, after a federal judge ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out widespread unlawful arrests during Operation Midway Blitz. The mass release order, issued by Judge Jeffrey Cummings, will see 13 people identified as unlawfully detained freed without bond by Friday, November 21, 2025, and hundreds more moved to bond or electronic monitoring, even as the federal government clings to a murky “high risk” list that it has not fully explained.

In a decision on November 12, 2025, Judge Jeffrey Cummings found that immigration officers had illegally arrested hundreds of people across Chicago, violating both the Castañon Nava consent decree and the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The ruling targets the conduct of ICE and other federal agencies during Operation Midway Blitz, an enforcement sweep that began on September 8, 2025 and led to raids in neighborhoods from South Shore and Pullman to Little Village, Cicero, Lakeview, Lincoln Park and East Side.

Thirteen individuals whom the court identified as unlawfully detained are to be released immediately and without bond by Friday, November 21, 2025. Around 600 others will not remain behind bars, but will instead be placed on bond and shifted into so‑called “alternatives to detention,” including electronic ankle monitors and closer surveillance. At the same time, government lawyers are fighting to keep at least 12 people in custody, labeling them “high risk” and opposing their release, even though the criteria for that label remain opaque.

The numbers emerging from court filings have raised pointed questions about how ICE and the Department of Homeland Security assess danger and flight risk. Of the 608 names listed by DHS as part of the Operation Midway Blitz arrests, only 16 people had criminal histories. That means more than 590 people caught up in the operation had no prior criminal record, even as some were placed on a secretive “risk” list and kept in detention while others were ordered out on bond.

The court’s scrutiny has landed squarely on Operation Midway Blitz, which officials had pitched as an aggressive, open‑ended enforcement push involving ICE, U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security.

“We’re going to be conducting this operation until we feel that we’ve been successful. There’s not an end date in sight,” said Marcos Charles, ICE’s acting head of Enforcement and Removal Operations.

In public comments, Marcos Charles also acknowledged that only 50–60% of the arrests were actually targeted, meaning agents were looking for specific people. The rest, he said, were “collateral arrests” — people who were not original targets but were taken into custody after being encountered during raids and checks and then found to be in the country without legal status.

It was those collateral arrests and the way they were carried out that drew the sharpest rebuke from the bench. According to advocates who brought the case, many individuals were stopped and detained without probable cause, sometimes based on appearance or language rather than specific evidence. Judge Jeffrey Cummings agreed that the government had crossed legal lines.

“The judge is finding that many of these arrests have been indiscriminate in nature and did not have probable cause, and that in some cases were based on racial profiling,” reported CBS News immigration and politics reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez, summarizing the court’s findings.

The Castañon Nava consent decree, which governs how immigration authorities may conduct arrests and detentions in the Chicago area, became a central point of contention. Advocates argued that federal officers ignored the decree’s safeguards, including limits on warrantless arrests and requirements for how and when people may be taken into custody. Judge Jeffrey Cummings agreed that ICE and Border Patrol tactics breached those guardrails, and he extended the decree’s protections by ordering the government to provide regular updates on warrantless arrests until the decree’s new expiration date.

Attorneys for the detainees said the ruling is not just a technical legal win but a lifeline for hundreds of families who have been living in fear since the raids began. By mid‑November, more than 400 arrests linked to Operation Midway Blitz had been confirmed, with some counts putting the number as high as 615. Lawyers told the court that, as of October 7, 2025, more than 3,300 immigration‑related arrests had taken place in Chicago since June, suggesting that Operation Midway Blitz sat on top of an already steep rise in enforcement.

The fallout reached well beyond people without legal status. Several U.S. citizens and lawful residents were mistakenly detained in the sweep, including a police officer who held valid work authorization and multiple staff members of Alderman Michael Rodriguez. Those detentions hardened public anger and helped fuel protests outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, just west of the city. Demonstrations there led to clashes between protesters and federal agents and repeated use of tear gas by ICE officers, despite court orders restricting such tactics.

Inside the courtroom, the National Immigrant Justice Center took the lead in challenging the operation, arguing that both ICE and U.S. Border Patrol had used methods that flouted constitutional and court‑ordered standards. Their case drew on detailed arrest reports and witness accounts to show how people were picked up in front of apartment buildings, at bus stops, and outside workplaces, often with little explanation and no warrant. The judge ultimately agreed that the government’s approach violated the Castañon Nava consent decree and the Fourth Amendment, paving the way for the mass release order that now covers more than 600 detainees.

Under Judge Jeffrey Cummings’s ruling, ICE must not only release people but also unwind some of the financial and legal burdens imposed on them in the process. The agency has been ordered to reimburse all bond payments that families scraped together to free loved ones from detention and to lift any conditions of release that were imposed under the unlawful arrests. In addition, federal officials must provide monthly updates on warrantless immigration arrests in the Chicago area, allowing plaintiffs’ attorneys and the court to monitor whether Operation Midway Blitz and related enforcement activities continue to skirt legal limits.

Yet even as detainees prepare to walk out, the government’s insistence on keeping a small group in custody under a “high risk” label has stirred fresh controversy. Lawyers for the detainees say they have not been given a clear definition of what qualifies someone as high risk, beyond vague references to security concerns or potential flight. Court filings show that, out of the 608 listed detainees, only 16 had criminal histories — a figure that throws into question how many of those being held as “high risk” actually pose any danger to the public.

The Department of Homeland Security has also been ordered to go back through its records and provide updated figures and names of every person arrested on immigration grounds in the Chicago area since June 11, 2025. That step is meant to identify others who may have been wrongfully detained under the same patterns that Judge Jeffrey Cummings condemned in his ruling. Attorneys say this could broaden the impact of the decision well beyond the initial 608 names listed by DHS in connection with Operation Midway Blitz.

For communities in Chicago, the raids left a visible mark. In South Shore, Pullman, Roseland, Little Village, Cicero, Lakeview, Lincoln Park and East Side, residents reported seeing unmarked vehicles and teams of armed officers outside homes and businesses as Operation Midway Blitz unfolded. The involvement of multiple federal agencies — ICE, U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI, ATF and other DHS units — gave the operation a sweeping presence that alarmed many families, including those with mixed immigration status who feared any knock at the door could mean separation.

Community groups say the judge’s decision to curb the operation and order mass releases has brought some relief, but also highlighted how easily even U.S. citizens and legal residents can be caught up in broad‑brush enforcement drives. The mistaken detention of a local police officer with valid work authorization, and of several staff members from Alderman Michael Rodriguez’s office, underscored how quickly checks can go wrong when officers rely on hurried judgments in the field.

Legal analysts note that the ruling may become a reference point for future challenges to aggressive immigration operations in other cities. By tying the government’s behavior to constitutional protections and to the specific terms of the Castañon Nava consent decree, Judge Jeffrey Cummings has set out a clear warning that large‑scale sweeps like Operation Midway Blitz cannot sidestep long‑standing limits on arrests. The requirement that ICE repay bonds and lift conditions of release adds a financial consequence that could shape how similar operations are planned and executed.

The case also throws a spotlight on the role of consent decrees in policing immigration enforcement. While the Castañon Nava consent decree was designed to constrain misconduct and protect civil rights, advocates argued that Operation Midway Blitz showed how quickly those protections can erode without close oversight. The judge’s order for monthly reports on warrantless arrests and for comprehensive lists of everyone detained since June is an attempt to rebuild that oversight in real time.

For now, families are focused on immediate steps: arranging rides from detention centers, reconnecting children with parents, and figuring out what comes next for people who will now fight their immigration cases from outside custody. Many will still face removal proceedings in immigration court, but they will do so without being locked up, with ankle monitors or check‑ins replacing bars and cells.

ICE, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, oversees immigration detention and deportation nationwide. Information on its enforcement and removal programs is available on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, though Operation Midway Blitz and the court‑ordered changes in Chicago have put an unusual degree of local and national attention on how those programs are actually carried out on the ground.

As buses and vans begin to return detainees to Chicago’s streets in the wake of Judge Jeffrey Cummings’s order, the long‑running battle over Operation Midway Blitz is shifting from the shadow of detention centers to the public arena. Lawyers will continue to press for clarity on the government’s “high risk” list, community groups will watch closely for any new surge in arrests, and federal agents will have to adjust their tactics to comply with a court that has drawn a sharp line between law enforcement and what it called indiscriminate, racially‑tinged sweeps. For hundreds of people who spent weeks in custody, the ruling marks the end of one ordeal — and the start of another, as they return home to fight their cases under the wary gaze of a city now more aware of how fragile their rights can be.