Chicago-area ICE arrests are being questioned in court for being “unlawful,” while the Department of Justice states that the enforcement is in accordance with US law

CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team got a closer look at what immigrant advocates say are illegal immigration arrests in the Chicago area.

In federal court, the I-Team covered the ongoing situation of a family from the Chicago area who are awaiting the release of their relative from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

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Abel Orozco was detained by ICE in January, in a move that his legal representatives claim was unlawful, along with 24 other individuals who were recently apprehended as part of heightened ICE enforcement operations.

Orozco, a father, husband, and undocumented immigrant, is the sole plaintiff in the “Castanon Nava” class-action lawsuit against the U.S. government. Despite a 2022 settlement agreement, he remains in custody while his legal team argues that ICE officials breached the law and the terms of the settlement by detaining him without a prior warrant.

“Abel Orozco, he’s been here 30 years, owns his own business,” said Mark Fleming with the National Immigrant Justice Center. ‘As he’s in custody, his wife is battling breast cancer, and the family is potentially going to lose their home in foreclosure. If these are the worst of the worst. We’re in trouble as a country.”

The I-Team was in Northern District Federal Court on Friday as plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice argued their case in front of the Honorable Jeffery Cummings, who said that there are, “Many things troubling me about these situations.”

Under the 2022 agreement, to arrest someone without a warrant ICE agents need to meet two criteria: Is there probable cause to believe someone is in the US illegally, and are they also a flight risk, a requirement immigrant advocates say is being flouted.

“We’ve been talking to hundreds of people being taken from our neighborhoods in similar ways,” said Xanat Sobrevilla with Organized Communities Against Deportations.

Lawyers for the Justice Department say warrants were eventually obtained in many of these arrests and in some cases, it may be burdensome to assess flight risk on the spot. The judge said, “We don’t know the magnitude of this problem” “it’s impossible to tell”

Attorneys say the Feds are still holding Orozco because he has a decades-old removal order while many others have been released on bond.

“Mr. Orozco decided, very fearfully, decided to go back to Mexico to visit with his father, who had had a massive stroke,” Fleming said. “And the reason he had done it is because he had missed the death of his mom, so he took that step. Now the country is punishing him, punishing his family.”

The government maintained in court Friday that all of the arrests were lawful and did not violate the settlement agreement.

This case is ongoing and the judge made no ruling Friday, but it has major implications to how ICE conducts its arrests at a time where high-profile enforcement is a major priority for President Donald Trump.