Politics
US Reps. Denied Entry at South Loop ICE Facility as Trump Calls for More Deportations in Chicago
U.S. Reps. Jonathan Jackson (left) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (right) speak Tuesday, June 17, 2025, after being denied access to a South Loop ICE facility. (WTTW News)
Two Illinois congressmen Tuesday were turned away from a South Loop facility run by federal immigration agents where the congressmen said residents have been summoned via “scammy” texts only to be detained by authorities.
U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Jonathan Jackson attempted to enter the immigration facility, located at 2245 S. Michigan Ave., but said they were only able to make it in to the lobby before being told to leave by a person identifying themselves as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
They said that person then phoned the Chicago Police Department to have them removed as trespassers.
The congressmen had sought to conduct official oversight at the facility, after both said their constituents had reported immigrant family members receiving texts instructing them to arrive at that location for routine check-ins, only to instead be detained by ICE.
“This is part of the chaos Donald Trump and ICE have rained down on the Chicago region,” Krishnamoorthi said. “For ICE and Donald Trump to specifically target Chicago for these types of raids and these types of fraudulent text scams to get people to come in, only to be snatched away, is wrong.”
Earlier this month, ICE agents reportedly detained at least 10 people at the facility after they were told to check in to a monitoring program administered by the agency.
As a member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Krishnamoorthi said he has every right to insist on inspecting the facility.
A CPD spokesperson confirmed there was a call for service at the ISAP location Tuesday morning, but no arrests were made.
Jackson on Tuesday said he’s had the families of two constituents contact him claiming they don’t know where their loved one has been taken, while Krishnamoorthi said he’s aware of residents from Elgin getting these texts instructing them to arrive at the facility for a check-in.
In recent days, President Donald Trump has vowed to shift immigration enforcement away from political allies and toward political foes, prioritizing deportations in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and cities at “the core of the Democrat Power Center.” At the same time, he’s reversed course and paused arrests in industries that heavily rely on a foreign-born workforce.
It’s not yet clear whether Trump plans to use Illinois National Guard troops or members of the U.S. military in Chicago to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, as he has in Los Angeles over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Nicole Hallett, an immigration attorney and the director of the University of Chicago’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, said the pace of ICE’s immigration raids has already picked up over the past month and “most people are waiting for it to increase even more.”
“I think everyone assumes what happened in LA is going to come to Chicago next,” she said.
According to Hallett, ICE has regularly used ruses or other potentially deceptive tactics in making arrests, noting that there have already been instances where people are detained during their check-ins.
But, she said, the “scale we’re seeing is just much greater than anything we’ve ever seen in the past.”
The Trump administration has said ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests daily, up from about 650 daily during the first months of Trump’s second term. Already, the president and his allies have targeted so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” with splashy livestreamed arrests, lawsuits and by summoning mayors and governors to testify at the Capitol.
Hallett said her clients consist of those who are applying for legal relief, such as an active application for asylum. But even so, she said basically anyone with a status other than being a U.S. citizen or a green card holder is “under an enormous amount of stress right now.”
“I have heard of people who are not going to work, I have heard of people who are not sending their kids to school, who are not doing unnecessary errands,” she said. “I think in general people are terrified that they’re going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, even though they’re trying to go about it the right way.”
Heather Cherone and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
