CHICAGO — The sound of whistles warning of approaching unmarked vehicles driven by immigration agents has once again echoed through Chicago neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs in recent weeks. At the same time, videos circulating online showing ICE agents detaining people during traffic stops and outside courthouses have alarmed immigrant communities and drawn concern from local elected officials.

According to immigration experts, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has shifted its enforcement strategy since the launch of last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz. Immigrant attorneys and advocates report a recent uptick of arrests at immigration court hearings, routine check-ins and criminal courthouses. In some cases, those detained are individuals facing minor criminal charges or whose cases remain unresolved — the latter meaning they have not been convicted of any offense.

Advocates say other arrests appear less predictable but often involve immigrants who entered the United States through parole programs established during the Biden administration. The shifting enforcement tactics have complicated decisions for immigrants seeking to comply with legal proceedings, while attorneys warn that courthouse arrests can undermine due process protections.

In response to questions about enforcement priorities and recent courthouse arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a spokesperson for DHS said the agents are focused on enforcing federal immigration law and removing individuals who pose public safety threats.

“ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Officers carry out targeted operations against criminal illegal aliens to enforce immigration laws passed by the people’s representatives in Congress,” the spokesperson said.

The agency added that under current DHS leadership, enforcement efforts are focused on “Making America Safe Again” and said officers continue to prioritize immigrants with criminal histories.

Rania Salem, a member of the Southwest Suburbs Rapid Response Team, was responding to reports of ICE activity at Cook County’s Bridgeview Courthouse on Wednesday morning when she witnessed the arrest of a young Venezuelan man leaving a court appearance for misdemeanor retail theft charges. Earlier that same day, a Venezuelan mother and her child had also been detained at the same courthouse.

The man, Denny Gabriel Perez Ospino, had finished his court hearing but was afraid to leave after learning immigration agents were waiting outside, Salem said.

She gave him a “Know Your Rights” card and tried to arrange for another volunteer to accompany him safely to his ride. Moments later, amid heavy rain, Perez Ospino ran toward a vehicle that had arrived to pick him up. Salem initially thought he had made it safely inside.

Instead, she said, agents moved in.

“There were at least five ICE vehicles that I had verified and confirmed myself,” she said. “All the agents swarmed the vehicle.”

Perez Ospino then ran back toward the courthouse, apparently believing the building would offer protection. According to Salem, agents followed him inside.

“And at that point, the agents grabbed him, and they threw him onto the floor,” Salem said.

As agents restrained Perez Ospino near the courthouse entrance, Salem said she tried to obtain information that could help notify his family or legal representatives. She said officers prevented her from obtaining a phone number for a loved one and did not respond when she repeatedly demanded to see a warrant for the arrest.

A state law prohibits warrantless civil immigration arrests in and around the buildings.

In its statement to the Tribune, the DHS spokesperson did not respond to questions on whether it had warrants for the arrests at the Bridgeview Courthouse.

Instead, the agency said Perez Ospino’s criminal history includes the retail theft charge and that the Biden administration released him in November 2023 after being apprehended by Border Patrol.

DHS also confirmed the arrest of Saray Yuliandris Gonzalez-Gonzalez and her son. According to the agency, Gonzalez-Gonzalez faces a retail theft charge, was released by the Biden administration in September 2023 and received a final order of removal in May 2024.

The three “will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and will receive full due process,” the statement said.

The Bridgeview arrests are not isolated.

On June 15, ICE agents arrested Jenner Edilzar Roldan-Perez, a Guatemalan national, at the Kane County Courthouse. According to DHS, Roldan-Perez has a prior arrest for battery and domestic violence and has been subject to a removal order since October 2019.

Immigration attorneys say courthouse arrests are not new, but they have become more visible in recent months. They argue that many of the people being detained while attending hearings, routine check-ins, or other legal proceedings have pending cases, unresolved allegations or have not been convicted of any crime.

Stephanie Spiro, associate director of protection-based relief at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said the recent courthouse arrests represent a different, more targeted approach. While ICE has long prioritized individuals with criminal convictions, she said advocates are increasingly concerned about arrests occurring while people are actively participating in legal proceedings.

“However, going to court and arresting people while they’re going through the process, that is something that we are seeing more often,” she added.

The recent operations reflect a growing overlap between immigration enforcement and court systems that many immigrants rely on to resolve legal matters. The concern, she said, extends to crime victims and witnesses who may become reluctant to interact with law enforcement or the courts.

“People have a right to defend themselves and to go through the criminal process,” Spiro said.

‘Mega master’ hearings

At the same time, Spiro said attorneys are seeing a separate trend inside immigration courts that they believe is accelerating deportation proceedings. Aside from continued and heightened arrests during check-ins or immigration court hearings, immigration courts in Chicago, Indianapolis and other cities began conducting what advocates have dubbed “mega master” hearings, in which dozens of immigrants — many without attorneys — appear before a single immigration judge at the same time.

While master calendar hearings are a routine part of removal proceedings, legal advocates say the new format dramatically increases the number of people appearing at once and reduces opportunities for individualized review of each case.

According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, some judges have held hearings involving more than 30 people simultaneously, while others have planned dockets of up to 100 people in a single day. During some hearings, NIJC observers reported seeing judges distribute “Respondent’s Pleading Declaration” forms that, if completed and returned, could accelerate the deportation process.

The forms require immigrants to respond to allegations contained in their notices to appear, the charging documents used by DHS to initiate removal proceedings. Immigration attorneys warn that errors in those documents can be legally significant and that individuals who sign forms without fully understanding their implications could unintentionally waive important rights or limit their ability to challenge deportation.

She said the hearings, combined with shortened timelines and new procedural requirements, have contributed to a surge in removal orders issued when immigrants fail to appear in court.

According to Spiro, many immigrants receive little notice of hearing dates or face growing barriers to appearing remotely, increasing the risk that they could miss hearings and be ordered deported without ever presenting their case.

“The biggest numerical immediate part of this is just those in absentia removal orders,” she said. “It’s judges ordering people removed when they were given very short notice or no notice to come into court.”

During Operation Midway Blitz, she said, advocates observed what they viewed as widespread enforcement efforts targeting immigrant communities regardless of criminal history or immigration status.

“In a more general conceptual way, we’ve seen how the immigration courts are increasingly becoming an enforcement arm,” Spiro said. “The immigration courts are operating in a way to effectuate removals, deportation as quickly as possible.”

Fear

Recent enforcement goes beyond courthouses. At least two vehicle collisions involving ICE arrests have been reported in the Chicago area in the last month. Federal immigration agents detained an immigrant the morning of June 9 after chasing his car through quiet Northwest Side streets until he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree, according to federal officials.

A DHS spokesperson said ICE was conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” to arrest Konrad Wojciech Darlak, an immigrant from Poland.

On June 2 in Albany Park, a chaotic confrontation unfolded when immigration agents in unmarked vehicles arrested a Venezuelan man after a collision involving a civilian vehicle. Dozens of neighbors poured into the street with whistles and cameras as the scene escalated.

In a statement, ICE said it conducted a “targeted operation” to arrest Domer Jesus Martinez-Sifontes. The agency said he assaulted officers while resisting arrest and attempted to flee on foot and that a crowd later surrounded officers and their vehicles, with one person allegedly damaging a vehicle before fleeing and striking a streetlight pole.

ICE said Martinez-Sifontes had entered the United States in 2023 and was released under the Biden administration. He remains in custody pending removal proceedings.

The incident echoed moments of widespread street-level enforcement from last year’s Operation Midway Blitz that residents say have left lasting fear.

Ald. Rosana Rodriguez, 33rd, whose office is in contact with Martinez-Sifontes’ family, said Albany Park has recently seen fewer ICE encounters than during earlier phases of Operation Midway Blitz, but said enforcement activity still surfaces intermittently.

“I think what agents are doing now is just looking at court records, and they’re trying to find specific people,” she said, contrasting it with Border Patrol’s dragnet tactics during Operation Midway Blitz. “During Operation Midway Blitz, they were taking anybody; they wouldn’t even ask people their names.”

Her concern, she said, is that when agents are on the streets, they use a similar level of force that Border Patrol used during Operation Midway Blitz. She described agents driving at high speeds through residential streets when they believe they are being followed.

Rodríguez said that while large-scale street operations have become less frequent, the memory of those encounters remains vivid for residents.

“The immediate question was like, ‘Oh my God, are they back?’” she said of the June 2 incident. “Fortunately, we haven’t seen that kind of presence frequently, but people have not forgotten.”

ICE processing center

In Broadview, movement at the ICE facility has become more visible again: more vehicles arriving and leaving, more detainees being transferred in and out.

Diana Rashid, state director of legal defense with the Resurrection Project, said a family with children was recently detained following their check-in at the Broadview facility. Their immigration applications, she said, were still pending when they were taken into custody.

Rashid also pointed to arrests involving rideshare drivers near O’Hare International Airport.

She noted that while recent activity does not appear to match earlier large-scale enforcement efforts such as Operation Midway Blitz, there have been “definitely in the last two weeks, spikes in enforcement activity.” But she emphasized that these increases appear periodic rather than steady.

Ambassador Reyna Torres Mendivil of the Mexican Consulate, whose office conducts daily welfare checks on Mexican nationals detained at the ICE processing center in Broadview, said the number of detainees has remained relatively steady since the start of the year.

The figures, however, cover only Mexican nationals and do not include detainees from other countries, a population that immigration experts say may account for a larger share of asylum-seekers currently moving through immigration courts and facing heightened enforcement scrutiny.

Torres Mendivil said communication between Mexican authorities and federal immigration agencies remains active.

“We continue to have fluid communication with DHS and ICE,” she said. “Especially when coordinating the repatriation of minors, where we have to be extremely careful.”

According to consular data shared by Torres Mendivil, officials identified about 3,360 Mexican nationals in detention within the consulate’s jurisdiction between January 2025 and April 2026.

“About half of the people we interview have no criminal history,” Torres Mendivil said.

The pastors, who won the battle to enter the facility after being denied entry during Midway Blitz, say they have been a calmer and cleaner space. Still, none of them are the “worst of the worst,” said Fr. Paul Keller, CMF, member of the the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership.

The group successfully fought for religious access to the Broadview ICE Staging Facility in Illinois this year, following a federal lawsuit and a preliminary judicial injunction. In May, DHS and ICE reached an agreement permitting daily pastoral care at the detention center, according to the coalition.

“The place isn’t crowded, but it generally does not seem to be empty,” he said.

The detention center, he noted, looks much like one would expect a detention facility to look, functional rather than comfortable, but not chaotic or neglected.

For CSPL, the most significant part of the work remains the people they meet. Keller said detainees frequently express appreciation for the volunteers’ visits, sometimes making the ministry itself a focus of their prayers and gratitude.

“It’s certainly helpful for those who are being detained,” he said. “They express that to us endlessly.”

—The Tribune’s Madeline Buckley and Tess Kenny contributed.

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