Crime & Law
Detainee Population at Broadview ICE Facility Has Plummeted as Immigration Agents Leave Chicago
Protesters gather outside an ICE processing facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Ill., Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh)
The population of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in west suburban Broadview has plummeted in recent weeks as federal agents have begun exiting Chicago and a court order has mandated improvements to living conditions at the facility.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Johnson in a hearing Tuesday said there are currently only four people being held at the Broadview facility, a drastic reduction that comes weeks after detainees there testified they had been crammed into rooms filled with more than 100 people for multiple days.
The decline in population comes as federal immigration agents sent to the area as part of the Trump Administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” enforcement efforts have begun leaving Chicago ahead of a possible return in the spring.
“I guess they just can’t take our winters,” U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said Tuesday. “I don’t blame them.”
More than 3,200 people suspected of violating immigration laws have been arrested in and around Chicago during the operation. But its intensity has begun to subside as Homeland Security officials have confirmed that a new immigration enforcement surge has begun in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Broadview facility — which serves as a processing facility where detainees are supposed to be held for only a few hours before being moved to a detention facility elsewhere — has drawn widespread protests in recent months.
Tuesday’s hearing was part of a class-action lawsuit brought last month by the MacArthur Justice Center and the ACLU of Illinois, who sought a temporary restraining order to address what advocates claim are “inhumane and unlawful conditions” at the Broadview facility.
Gettleman granted that order following a daylong hearing earlier this month in which several former Broadview detainees testified that they were crammed into overstuffed holding rooms with dozens of others, had difficulty contacting their families or attorneys and weren’t able to shower or change their clothes sometimes for multiple days.
Some detainees also said they were coerced into signing voluntary deportation forms after being lied to or threatened by federal agents.
Since then, government prosecutors said ICE has made significant strides toward improving those conditions, though attorneys for the plaintiffs say they’ve still had trouble contacting clients inside Broadview.
Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally and attorneys in the case performed a site visit at the controversial immigration facility.
Attorneys representing the detainees on Tuesday said there were around 20 people held at the facility during that visit, and they mentioned some issues regarding food quality and attorney access still remained.
Johnson told the court though that aside from “a few tweaks outstanding,” ICE is currently complying with Gettleman’s temporary order.
Attorneys for the detainees are now seeking a preliminary injunction which would turn Gettleman’s temporary order into a more permanent one. A hearing on that issue is scheduled for December.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
