The use of deceptive tactics to lure and arrests immigrants is creating major community backlash in Chicago after the arrest of 10 people lured to a site for fake appointments.
The arrests and detentions drew immediate criticism from community leaders.
“It’s very important to point out that constitutional rights are being violated right now. We’re all watching as constitutional rights are routinely violated, there is no due process and everybody deserves due process under the Constitution,” 33rd ward Alderperson Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez said.
The arrests happened at the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) office in Chicago’s South Loop on June 4.
Ten people arrived for what they thought were routine appointments, but instead were immediately detained by Immigration Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) officials.
ICE says that all 10 had final orders of removals, but their relatives and legal advocates say that is completely untrue.
“It’s a lie. The people here are all not in final orders of removal. They are folks that were complying. They are not the people they are trying to paint,” Xanat Sobrevilla from Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) told the South Side Weekly.
They were then denied access to their attorneys and some of those arrested where not located for a further two days. They were also moved to the Broadview Processing Center in Broadview Illinois, where supporters gathered to demand their release.
Attorneys for those detained have filed for a stay of removal with ICE.
You can sign a petition demanding the release of one of those detained, Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda, an OCAD organizer who has been in the country for a decade, here.
Supporters of the immigrants inside the center stayed near it, chanting, “No están solos, aquí estamos!”
That translates to, “You are not alone, we are here!”
