Relief Could Come Soon For ICE Detainees Facing ‘Cruel’ Conditions In Broadview, Judge Says

This is part of our series of daily recaps of ICE activity in the Chicago region. Have a tip we should check out? Email newsroom@blockclubchi.org.

DOWNTOWN — A federal judge called the alleged conditions at ICE’s processing center in Broadview “disgusting” as he plans to issue a temporary restraining order to force improvements and possibly reduce the population at the facility.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman wrapped up a hearing Tuesday — which featured hours of testimony by former detainees describing what he called “unnecessarily cruel” conditions — by ordering everyone back in the courtroom 4:15 p.m. Wednesday so he could issue a restraining order providing some immediate “relief” to those still held at Broadview. 

“We don’t want people to be treated the way I have heard them being treated,” Gettleman said. “Sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder, filthy toilets overflowing, surrounded by human waste, it’s just unacceptable.”

In his opening remarks, Gettleman went as far as to compare descriptions of the site’s inoperable showers to conditions at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Gettleman is overseeing a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of former detainees who claimed the dire conditions inside — from a lack of water and medication, little food, overflowing toilets and extreme overcrowding — are part of a concerted effort by federal agents to pressure people to sign voluntary deportation papers.

Plaintiffs want detainees to be given an area to make confidential calls to attorneys within three hours of requesting one, alleging that calls inside the Broadview facility have been limited and are always monitored, making it a “black site.” They’re also asking for federal agents to create at least 50 square feet of space for each detainee in Broadview. 

Among other requests were that the facility be regularly inspected and that people are held there no longer than 12 hours before being sent elsewhere “able to hold people overnight or longer.” Gettleman has yet to rule on any of it, but promised to create an order that was “most appropriate.”

“This is no issue of someone not getting a bottle of Fiji water,” Alexa Van Brunt, the lead plaintiff attorney and a director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said in court Tuesday. “There are a set of dire conditions when painted together make a harrowing picture.”

I.C.E. agents patrol from the roof of a boarded-up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Friday Sept. 19, 2025. Credit: Vincent D. Johnson/Block Club Chicago

Pablo Moreno Gonzales, who said he lived in Chicago for 35 years, testified under oath Tuesday that he was picked up by federal agents Oct. 29 while waiting on the street in Mayfair for his boss to take him to a construction job. He was held at the Broadview site for the next two days after telling agents he didn’t want to return to Mexico because his two adult children were born, raised and living in the U.S., he said.

Gonzales said he was stuffed into a cell with around 150 other men, forcing him to sleep sitting up for only minutes at a time “because I could fall on top of the fellow in front of me.”

Detainees were given a 10-ounce bottle of water three times a day, small sandwiches and never a hot meal, Gonzales said. A Venezuelan man, Samuel Ochoa, said he was fed only “a piece of bread with lettuce and ham” three times while being held at the facility. Both men said the lights were always on, requests for more drinking water were ignored and many people slept on cold floors. 

The cells included a toilet, with some of the crowded men only inches away from it, Gonzales said in tears.

“It was too much,” he said. “It was just too much.”

Jana Brady, an attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration Customs and Enforcement, said the facility was “not intended to be a long-term holding” center and that conditions were improving as agents “learned things along the line” while the operation’s arrests ramped up. 

She did not deny the facility has no beds or working showers, adding detainees can’t talk to lawyers confidentially while in a transitional facility. 

Brady argued a restraining order would “effectively halt” the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws in Chicago. She cited Illinois sanctuary policies that prevent ICE from renting beds in state detention facilities. 

“There was not any long term serious deprivation,” Brady said in federal court Tuesday. “We’re in a situation where there’s nowhere to put them in Illinois.”

The detainees are fed Jimmy John’s sandwiches, she said. But detainees said the sandwiches were from Subway. 

They described still being hungry and thirsty. 

Immigration attorneys, brought to the stand by the plaintiffs, testified they faced steep challenges in finding and contacting their clients after they were arrested and taken to the Broadview facility. That induced failed attempts to enter the facility themselves.

“No one answered,” said Kevin Herrera, an attorney for a Broadview detainee, after he tried knocking on the front door in search of his client. “I wanted to make sure he wasn’t coerced to sign anything.”

Shelby Vcelka, an immigration defense attorney, said her messages to ICE officers were ignored when she tried to get a breast pump for her client, a new mother, held in the Broadview facility.

A federal agent stands looking around carrying a video camera gimbal near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at 1930 Beach St. in Broadview, Ill. on Sept. 23, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago

Vcelka bought one herself from Target and was allowed to “pass it off” outside the facility, she said. The woman was later deported to Mexico.

“She never received the breast pump while in Broadview,” Vcelka said. Communications to her clients inside have been “extremely limited,” she said.

“If I’m able to speak with them it’s typically through happenstance, if family is in my office when they receive a phone call … or if they have my phone number memorized,” Vcelka said. “There’s a lot of background noise, a lot of voices, it’s not in a private setting and not on a non-recorded line.”

Herrera said he was eventually able to speak on the phone with his client for about three minutes. When an ICE officer learned the man was speaking to an attorney, he told him to get off the phone, Herrera said.

“I was not able to give him sufficient legal advice during the time he was in Broadview,” Herrera said.

Claudia Pereira Guevara called into the courtroom from Honduras to describe unsanitary conditions inside the Broadview facility that ultimately led her to self-deport.

She claimed to be held there for five days without a shower, soap or a change of clothes. The cell was dirty to the point detainees asked ICE officers for a broom to clean it themselves, she said.

“They refused,” she said. “You just couldn’t put up with the smell anymore.”

One time the toilet clogged and overflowed, and detainees “had to use garbage bags to unplug it,” she said.

She slept on benches and chairs, but one day resorted to the floor and woke up not being able to feel her feet, she said. She was taken in a wheelchair elsewhere in the facility and given a medication by an ICE officer, who told her it was “for vomiting,” she said.

“There was a person who was having a heart attack. I could tell from what was happening he was on the floor and his face was changing color,” Guevara said. “They just surrounded, looking at him, like they thought it was a lie, I don’t know. Not believing him.”

Guevara said she wasn’t sure when she’d see her young children in the U.S. — an infant boy and five-year-old girl — again.

Both Guevara and Moreno, speaking through a Spanish translator, said they were presented with deportation papers inside the Broadview facility.

“They were in English, and I don’t speak English,” Guevara said.

A protester holds a sign and gives a thumbs down as federal agents patrol the rooftop of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at 1930 Beach St. in Broadview, Ill. on Sept. 23, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago

The final testimony Tuesday came from Ruben Torres Maldonado, the man who made national headlines after federal agents arrested him last month, pulling him away from caring for a teenage daughter who had recently finished chemotherapy. 

Maldonado, a home painter arrested outside a Home Depot, said he received no medical care after being taken to the Broadview detention center with a ripped shirt and scratches on his neck. 

“In a room there were like 80 people, and in another there were 100, wherever they put us, there were a lot of us,” Maldonado said through a translator. “At night you couldn’t walk … you had to be careful, not to step on someone’s hand.” 

Maldonado testified he was speaking on behalf of people still being held at Broadview. 

His daughter, Ofelia, sat in the back of the courtroom in a wheelchair, holding her father’s signature black Cubs hat as he took the stand.

The two had waited through hours of testimony. 

As Gettleman made his closing remarks, Maldonado sat behind Ofelia, resting his forehead on the back of her chin.

Happening In Chicago

• Around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday, agents arrested at least one person near Milwaukee and Richmond avenues in Logan Square, according to the Northwest Side Rapid Response Team.
• Around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, agents arrested one person in the parking lot of Agora Market, 2134 N. Western Ave, according to the Northwest Side Rapid Response Team.
• Around 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, ICE and Border Patrols agents were confirmed near Kedzie Avenue and Logan Boulevard in Logan Square, according to the response team.

Homeland Security Boss Says Federal Immigration Agents Haven’t Detained US Citizens. She’s Wrong: Dozens of U.S. citizens have been detained at protests, handcuffed and interrogated on the street or swept up in raids since Operation Midway Blitz began.

Newly Passed Bills Will Help Protect Immigrants At Schools, Courts And Hospitals In Illinois: State lawmakers approved a package of laws that set protections for immigrants at courts, public universities and day care centers.

FROM SUN-TIMES: Broadview Village Board Meeting Cut Short As Anti-ICE Protesters Confront Mayor: Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson abruptly ended Monday’s village board meeting, clearing out protesters who criticized her handling of daily protests at an ICE processing facility.

FROM SUN-TIMES: Mayor Johnson Scores Win In Legal Battle With Trump Over Frozen Federal Funds: Homeland Security and FEMA can’t kill a program created to reimburse cities for costs tied to the care and feeding of migrants, judge rules.

FROM TRIBUNE: Chicago Woman Dragged Out Of Her Car After Colliding With ICE Demands Accountability. The arrest of Dayanne Figueroa highlights growing concerns about the use of force against U.S. citizens and due process. She was released after a few hours without charges.

FROM TRIBUNE: ICE Pushes Chicago Restaurants In Immigrant Neighborhoods Into Survival Mode: The Tribune spoke to several restaurant owners about the impact of immigration enforcement on their businesses and on diners. The blow to foot traffic is widespread across the city, but was felt most in neighborhoods with higher Latino populations.

FROM TRIBUNE: 3 Street Vendors And Their Families Receive Financial Assistance From Little Village Nonprofit: The Street Vendors Association of Chicago distributed its first three checks to street vendors fearful of leaving their homes as immigration enforcement ramps up.

FROM TRIBUNE: Border Patrol’s Strong-Arm Tactics Are The New Norm In Chicago As Trump Moves To Sideline ICE Leadership: Instead of carefully targeted arrests long practiced by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, President Donald Trump’s administration has deployed roving groups of masked Border Patrol agents, who work within U.S. Customs and Border Protection. These agents have roamed throughout Chicago and its suburbs with the mission of arresting as many undocumented immigrants as possible, often while camera operators film for future government promotional videos.

FROM TRIBUNE: Chicago-Area Man Killed By ICE Honored At Franklin Park Day Of The Dead Celebration: Candles, candy and colorful flowers adorned the ofrenda a couple dozen people helped build Saturday to honor Silverio Villegas González.

FROM TRIBUNE: On Halloween, ‘State-Sponsored Terror’ In Chicago, North Suburbs: Despite pleas from Gov. JB Pritzker to pause federal immigration enforcement operations while children celebrate Halloween, Border Patrol agents tore through Chicago and the suburbs.

FROM TRIBUNE: Appeals Court Says Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino Does Not Have To Appear Daily Before Judge: A Chicago appeals court ruled Friday that Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino does not have to come to court for a daily use-of-force report to a judge.

FROM TRIBUNE: Lakeview Resident Calls On CPD To Investigate Federal Agents For Immigration Raid On His Property: Leo Feler said federal agents violated the Fourth Amendment by bursting into his property last week while trying to arrest construction workers.

FROM CBS2: Evanston, Pilsen Communities Aim To Recover From Immigration Raids: The Pilsen Chamber of Commerce is putting on the first-ever Dia de los Muertos window walk, featuring work from Benito Juarez High School students in the windows of 26 storefronts on 18th Street. Hernandez hopes the new effort can boost traffic.

FROM WBEZ: Crossing Borders Music String Quartet Performs Outside Broadview ICE Facility: Crossing Borders Music has been using Western classical instruments to highlight human rights abuses. In the Loop talks with members of the group.

FROM CHALKBEAT: Attendance Drops At Chicago Schools In Communities With Increased Immigration Enforcement: Chicago students in heavily Latino and immigrant neighborhoods are missing school as ICE enforcement ramps up in their communities, new data suggests.

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