Crime & Law
Federal Immigration Agents Detain Teacher at Preschool Facility in North Center
Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center, 2550 W. Addison St., is pictured in a file photo on Nov. 5, 2025. (WTTW News)
A video shared online shows federal immigration enforcement agents detaining a teacher Wednesday morning inside Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center in the North Center neighborhood.
The video shows two agents detaining the teacher inside the preschool and day care and then removing her from the facility at 2550 W. Addison St. The arrest occurred around 7 a.m. One of the agents is seen reentering the facility. The teacher can be heard telling the other agent that she has papers.
During an emotional news conference Wednesday afternoon, local elected officials and parents at Rayito de Sol called for the immediate release of the teacher, who they referred to only as Diana.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez said she believes the woman is currently being held at the Broadview ICE facility. Ramirez said her team, along with U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley’s team, contacted the woman’s family and the Colombian Consulate to get more information.
The ICE agents entered the preschool and day care facility without a warrant, according to Quigley. Ramirez, who visited the day care Wednesday morning, said she viewed footage from inside the facility, where she said agents questioned another woman and took her to the locker room to check her documentation.
“They didn’t just walk in chasing one person,” Ramirez said. “They went into multiple rooms asking and looking for teachers while children were present.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X that officers were conducting a “targeted traffic stop” of a person McLaughlin describes as a “female illegal alien from Colombia.”
“Officers attempted to pull over this vehicle, which was registered to a female illegal alien, with sirens and emergency lights, but the male driver refused to pull the vehicle over,” McLaughlin wrote. “Law enforcement pursued the vehicle before the assailant sped into a shopping plaza where he and the female passenger fled the vehicle. They ran into a daycare and attempted to barricade themselves inside the daycare—recklessly endangering the children inside.”
In response, Ramirez said DHS lies “over and over.” As an example, she referenced the differing accounts DHS gave regarding the death of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park, which contrasted with body camera footage that was later released.
“They are lying here,” Ramirez said. “The woman that they’re referring to in the statement is a teacher at Rayito de Sol — that is who they targeted. She was on her way to work — that is how she was targeted.”
Maria Guzmán is a parent at Rayito de Sol, which offers a bilingual early education curriculum with a focus on culture and Spanish language immersion. Guzmán said Spanish speakers, Latino teachers and day care workers are horrified, and that speaking Spanish has made people a target by federal immigration agents.
“I have raised my children to believe that it is something to be proud of that their grandparents came here to build all of us a better life,” Guzmán said. “What do I tell them now? What do I tell my children? That they have to be embarrassed of their culture?”
Maria Guzmán, a parent at Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center, speaks during a news conference on Nov. 5, 2025, following the detainment of a teacher at the school by federal immigration officials. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)
Erin Horetski is a mother of two sons who currently attend Rayito de Sol; her eldest son recently transitioned out of the school. Horetski said the teacher detained by federal agents was her youngest son’s teacher, whom students at the school call Ms. Diana.
Horetski teared up while talking about her son’s teacher being detained, describing the events as “scary” and saying she felt “anger, sad, disbelief, frustration.” Horetski said she wanted her kids to attend Rayito de Sol because of its emphasis on culture and diversity.
“I have a great-grandfather who came from Mexico, and unfortunately my grandpa had to grow up in an orphanage, and it never carried over so it was just something where I wanted my kids to be able to learn Spanish and be exposed to things that I couldn’t give them,” Horetski said. “You could just feel the community and the culture, and it’s colorful and bright, and the teachers care, and you could just feel it in everything that they do, and I just wanted my kids to be able to experience that. I feel like they really love my children as their own.”
The school closed for the remainder of Wednesday following the teacher’s detainment.
Horetski said Rayito de Sol has a “tight-knit community” of parents who came together following Wednesday morning’s events. Horetski was among a group of parents standing in front of the building where the Wednesday news conference was held, holding “Hands Off Chicago” signs.
Community members have started a petition demanding the release of the Rayito de Sol teacher and a GoFundMe to go toward legal fees related to her case. A rally is also planned for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Northcenter Town Square.
The Illinois Latino Agenda, a coalition of leaders whose organizations serve and advocate for the Latino community, said in a Wednesday statement that ICE has “reached a new low in inflicting trauma on the most vulnerable and helpless among us.”
“This morning’s victims: infants, toddlers and children in a daycare center and preschool who had to watch ICE drag their teacher out from inside the building,” the statement said.
The Illinois Latino Agenda highlighted the importance of state lawmakers recently passing a bill, House Bill 1312, that would require child care facilities to set up policies for responding to immigration enforcement, and also require them to notify parents of immigration enforcement activity.
The bill, which still needs to be signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, wouldn’t take effect until next year. State Rep. Lilian Jiménez (D-Chicago), who worked on the legislation, said during the news conference that Pritzker has told her and others he plans on signing the bill.
Ramirez said she believed Chicago is being used as a testing ground by federal immigration agents for what could later become more widespread immigration enforcement tactics throughout the country.
“They wanna know how far they can go in Chicago, so they can replicate this throughout the country,” Ramirez said. “Every single person around the country should be watching what’s happening here. They think that they can do it here and get into a day care, a school, a hospital, (that) they’ll be able to do it anywhere in this country.”
Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]
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