By Renee Hickman
CHICAGO (Reuters) -More than a dozen suburban Chicago mothers were arrested outside an immigration detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Friday, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, in a protest against the ongoing immigration crackdown in the area launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The facility has been a flashpoint for anger around Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” for months, with frequent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. The clashes have included federal agents deploying tear gas and shooting pepper balls at protesters, and the indictment of a congressional candidate and others on charges of impeding federal agents at the facility.
Raids across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, including one at a daycare this week, have led to protests and violent arrests.
“Every day is more and more alarming,” said Dani Munoz, a protesting mother who was not among the 14 arrested.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and others have sued the government on behalf of detainees at the Broadview facility, and a federal judge on Wednesday ordered officials to improve conditions that he determined “did not pass constitutional muster.”
The protesters, who described themselves as a coalition of area mothers, were calm as they were led away in handcuffs from a circle where they sat after crossing barriers outside the Broadview facility. It was not immediately clear whether they faced charges.
Two days earlier, the dramatic arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of a teacher at a Spanish-language immersion daycare center on Chicago’s North Side drew national attention.
“The situation with the daycare provider was horrifying, and something like that happens here and in other communities every day. We don’t want to stand by and do nothing,” Munoz said.
Charlie Wysong, a lawyer for the daycare teacher, Diana Santillana Galeano, said she had a work permit that allows her to work legally in the U.S. In a habeas corpus petition, her lawyers said that the agents entered the daycare without a warrant, violating a Department of Justice consent decree. Wysong said a hearing in the case of Santillana, who is from Medellin, Colombia, would likely take place in federal court next week.
Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago began in September, with the stated purpose of pursuing dangerous criminals without the legal right to reside in the U.S. It has resulted in more than 3,000 arrests, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Those arrests have included U.S. citizens and people with no criminal history.
(Reporting by Renee Hickman in Chicago; Editing by Emily Schmall and Matthew Lewis)
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