CHICAGO — A 13-year-old Venezuelan boy tried to stay calm as he translated the words his mother could not understand during their immigration check-in on Friday morning.

Standing inside a small room in an ICE office in downtown Chicago, he began to cry after he was told to tell his mother that the entire family was being detained. His father, Josue Pire Hidalgo, had been taken aside and sent to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center earlier that day.

“He was the one translating because my English is bad,” said the boy’s mother, the wife of Pire Hidalgo. “When my son heard that I was detained, he became very nervous. He started crying.”

When an interpreter was eventually called because the boy could no longer translate, the woman was told that she and her children would be released under an ankle monitor because their 6-year-old daughter has asthma and relies on daily medication.

Now, a North Side community is rallying around Pire Hidalgo, a Chicago Public Schools custodian and father of two, whose arrest comes as immigration enforcement has surged across the Midwest this summer. Attorneys and immigrant advocates say ICE has increasingly begun to target people during routine immigration check-ins, in criminal courthouse parking lots and during traffic stops — a shift from the large-scale workplace raids and neighborhood operations that dominated headlines a year ago.

CPS said in a statement to the Tribune that the district ensures that all new hires hold legal authorization to work in the U.S. in accordance with federal, state and municipal laws, as well as “provides support and resources to international employees when immigration issues arise.” According to CPS records, Pire Hidalgo has worked as a custodian in the district since July 2025, most recently at Farnsworth Elementary School in Jefferson Park.

CPS did not respond to further questions after its statement, explaining it does not disclose personnel information due to “privacy practices.”

Pire Hidalgo’s wife said the family arrived downtown the morning of July 17 for what they believed would be a routine ICE appointment for their asylum case, an appointment they had waited more than three years to attend. They entered the United States in late 2022, applied for asylum, obtained work permits and secured jobs as CPS custodians.

“We thought we were doing everything the right way,” said his wife, who the Tribune is not naming out of fear of retribution. “We don’t have a deportation order. We don’t have any crimes. We pay taxes. We work for the state. We always tried to follow the law. I never imagined this would happen.”

A public records search in Cook and suburban counties did not immediately reveal any criminal history by a man with the same name. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the department would not be able to provide immediate comment.

Pire Hidalgo’s wife said the family almost skipped the appointment after friends warned them not to go. Instead, they decided complying with the law was their safest option.

“I told him, ‘Let’s follow the law,'” she said. “‘If we don’t show up, it could be worse. Let’s keep going with our process.'”

Instead, she said, the appointment ended with her husband in ICE custody, their family separated for the first time in their 17 years together. He’s now being held at a jail in Clay County, Indiana. His bond hearing is scheduled for July 28, his wife said.

“He’s a very good father, a very hard worker and a very good husband,” she said. “He’s always taken care of us. This is the first time we’ve ever been separated, and it’s been very hard for me and for our children.”

Their children attend a CPS school on the city’s North Side, and neighbors and the school community are now scrambling to support the family. A GoFundMe created to help support them had raised nearly $15,000 Monday night. A parent-led mutual aid network created last school year to support immigrant families during Operation Midway Blitz is poised to organize meal trains, collect clothing, and distribute food and other necessities, parents said.

“I think the community is really trying to rally around them,” said Angeline Groves, a founder of the network. “My youngest is the same age as their youngest. They go to school together, and this is one of my daughter’s friends that this is happening to.”

Anna Duski, another school parent, recalled the quiet routines that have become familiar over the past year for her and her children, who have gotten to know the family as they navigate the uncertainty of the immigration system.

“They’re very sweet, close-knit children,” she said. “The brother would walk the sister into school in the mornings and hold her hand. He goes to a different door just to walk her in and then goes back to the entrance where the older kids go.”

She said the family has become deeply woven into the neighborhood through their jobs and their children’s school.

“They’re valuable members of our community,” she said. “The kids are friends with our kids. The family is just trying to provide a better life for their kids, and I think they are heroes.”

She added: “Everyone’s just devastated that this happened to them.”

SEIU Local 73, which represents public sector employees in Illinois and northwest Indiana, including some CPS custodians and non-teacher employees, said in a statement that it stands behind Pire Hidalgo and is organizing its members and communities to demand his immediate release.

“Chicago is a city built by people like Josue Pire Hidalgo — people who show up before sunrise to open our schools, who keep the hallways clean and the classrooms safe, so that every child, no matter their zip code or their parents’ paperwork, has a decent place to learn,” SEIU Local 73’s Executive Vice President Trumaine Reeves said in the statement.

Reeves added that more widely, the union is fighting for a city “where a man can go to a scheduled appointment and come home to his family that night” and “no child has to wonder if their custodian, their neighbor, or their parent will be there when they get home.”

“That is the city we are building, together, and we will not stop until Josue Pire Hidalgo is back where he belongs — home, with his family, and back on the job serving the students of Chicago,” Reeves said.

Pire Hidalgo’s wife said she worries about her husband in detention because he was born with hearing loss in both ears. He cannot hear out of one ear and has very limited hearing in the other. After arriving in the United States, he underwent medical evaluations and was prescribed hearing aids, which he has used for about four years, she said.

While her husband was taken into custody with his hearing aids, he doesn’t have a charger in detention. She worries the lack of access to his devices could affect his ability to participate in his immigration proceedings, especially since his next hearing is expected to take place by video.

“I’m afraid he won’t hear well,” she said. “People tend to misunderstand when someone has to ask for things to be repeated several times. He either reads lips or gets closer to the person speaking so he can understand.”

But she said she draws strength from the community that has rallied around her family. Especially as she prepares for her own immigration hearing scheduled for next year.

“I’m trusting God,” she said. “I’m doing everything I possibly can, and the support from the community, moral, emotional and financial, has given me the strength to keep fighting for him.”

She said her husband’s colleagues describe him as a dedicated employee and a valued member of the school community. He has worked for CPS for about a year, while she has worked there slightly longer, she said. Their jobs allowed them to provide for their children while they continued their legal case.

“He is very, very loved at his school,” his wife said. “He is a very good worker. We are always well evaluated. They have no complaints about us. We like what we do, and we value our work.”

—Chicago Tribune’s Tess Kenny contributed.

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