Chicago TV station WGN–TV, released video (below) of ICE agents apprehending a person whom the media outlet identified as “a daycare teacher” on Chicago’s North Side.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) responded, “This reporting is totally FALSE. ICE agents did NOT target a daycare center or a daycare employee. They were attempting to apprehend an illegal alien who fled during a traffic stop, exited the car at a random shopping center, and tried to barricade herself in a Chicago daycare center. She was never a teacher or worker at the daycare facility. Fake stories like this are why our brave @ICEgov agents have increasingly faced attacks & threats. Shameful.”
[NOTE: Schools were largely off-limits to immigration officers in the past, but in January 2025 the Trump administration rescinded guidelines that limited immigration enforcement actions in protected areas or “sensitive locations,” including schools and places of worship.]
This is a lie, John.
Instead of doing your job and ending the shutdown, you’re posting on Twitter to distract from your failures. Meanwhile, Texans are paying more for groceries, healthcare, energy bills, and rent. https://t.co/21Z1xwlcF4
— JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) November 9, 2025
The Washington Post reported that “immigration officers arrested a teacher early Wednesday in Chicago after chasing her into the grounds of a private preschool” called Rayito de Sol, a Spanish immersion daycare and school.
School officials told The Post that they showed the ICE agents the teacher’s employment documents, including a work permit, “but agents nonetheless detained her.”
Stop defending Gestapo like behavior & obvious violations of long held safety norms https://t.co/dzZwwyRyHr
— Whit Stillman (@WhitStillman) November 6, 2025
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker replied to Cornyn: “This is a lie, John. Instead of doing your job and ending the shutdown, you’re posting on Twitter to distract from your failures. Meanwhile, Texans are paying more for groceries, healthcare, energy bills, and rent.”
Former Assistant US Attorney Alicia Strohl Resnicoff also replied to Cornyn: “Senator, I am in Chicago. You are not. You have been misled. These ICE operations are making us all less safe here. If you are a big fan, please ask that these operations leave Illinois and go to Texas. We here in Illinois appreciate our hard working immigrant neighbors. We didn’t vote for this.”
Cornyn is also being challenged in his home state — by Republicans. The incumbent Senator is facing 2026 GOP primary challenges from U.S. Representative Wesley Hunt and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have questioned Cornyn’s MAGA credentials, for which unrestricted ICE support is a key component.