Conditions inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in west suburban Broadview will be at the center of yet another high-stakes hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Tuesday.
And a federal judge has said he’s ready to devote his entire day to it.
Lawyers want U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman to enter a temporary restraining order governing conditions inside the facility, where they say people are being held without sufficient food and water, opportunities for hygiene, or access to proper medical care.
“Broadview is a black hole,” they wrote in a recently proposed class-action lawsuit, “and federal officials are acting with impunity inside its walls.”
The lawsuit sets the stage for another pivotal hearing at the federal courthouse in Chicago’s Loop, where lawyers have argued in recent weeks over the feds’ treatment of protesters and whether President Donald Trump should be allowed to deploy National Guard troops here.
Now the focus will turn to the de facto detention facility that’s also been the site of near-daily protests during the Trump administration deportation campaign known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”
The Sun-Times and WBEZ have documented how the federal immigration processing center, which is meant to hold people for a few hours at a time, is instead keeping them for multiple days.
Government lawyers have recently acknowledged in court that Broadview is “not equipped to be an overnight facility.” The new lawsuit, brought by the MacArthur Justice Center and the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, alleges the feds “are now warehousing people at Broadview for days on end.”
They claim “the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable. Most nights are freezing cold, yet only some receive a thin foil blanket, sweater, or sweatpants to try to retain warmth.”
“The physical conditions are filthy,” lawyers wrote in the lawsuit, “with poor sanitation, clogged toilets, and blood, human fluids, and insects in the sinks and the floor.”
They called the facility a “breeding ground for illness to spread,” and added that “privacy is non-existent.”
Meanwhile, people being detained there are prevented from speaking with their lawyers, according to the lawsuit.
The Justice Department argued Monday that people are kept in Broadview only for “short periods of custody,” and they are “adequately provided with food, clothing, shelter, and medical care before they are transferred to another detention facility.”
The feds explained in a 37-page court filing that the facility has six temporary holding cells. Each has “several bench-style seating areas” that are “filled with hard foam material, which detainees utilize to lay down or sleep.”
“All detainees are issued foil blankets because foil blankets are preferred to ensure the health and safety of the detainees, as fabric blankets are susceptible to lice, scabies, and other transmittable diseases,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote. “All temporary holding cells, processing areas, and other frequently used areas … are cleaned daily by professional janitorial staff.”
Each holding cell has “at least one toilet; some cells may have as many as three,” they added. One holding cell “has three shower spaces,” they said.
The order sought from Gettleman would require the Trump administration to make sure no one is held at the Broadview facility in a room of less than 50 square feet per person, without clean bedding and a mat, and without adequate supplies of soap, toilet paper and oral hygiene or menstrual products.
The holding area would need to be cleaned “thoroughly” at least three times a day. The facility would also need to have an operable shower for every 12 detainees; a toilet or urinal for every 12 male detainees; and a toilet for every eight female detainees.
The lawyers also want the toilets in a location where they “cannot be observed by other detainees” or “officers, or staff.”
The feds would also need to make a telephone number available for legal representatives to call, which would have to be “monitored and answered without undue delay from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.”
Contributing: Lauren FitzPatrick