A federal magistrate judge is arranging a visit to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview, which has become a controversial hub for the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally authorized the visit Friday as part of a lawsuit over conditions inside the facility, which long served as a processing center. But since the start of the feds’ so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” in September, people have been held there for days at a time.
The visit has been tentatively planned for Thursday morning, and details will be sorted out early next week.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said Tuesday the facility “has really become a prison.” He followed up with a temporary restraining order meant to improve conditions there — like requiring a clean mat and bedding for everyone held overnight, and that cells be cleaned twice daily.
Gettleman entered that order after listening to more than three hours of testimony about people being crammed 100 or more at a time into a holding cell without a hot meal and nowhere to sleep but a dirty floor. He also ordered every detainee to receive “at least three full meals per day.”
But Gettleman also enlisted McNally to supervise the exchange of evidence known as discovery. Magistrate judges are judicial officers who handle various functions delegated to them by Senate-confirmed judges like Gettleman.
McNally met with lawyers in the case Friday afternoon to talk about the discovery process, noting that Gettleman’s temporary restraining order lasts 14 days and was already 2 days old.
She said she wanted to start planning a site visit. Though Gettleman had previously declined to order such an inspection, McNally said she sees it as part of the discovery process.
Justice Department lawyer Jana Brady complained it might be too early for a visit. In a status report filed Friday, the feds claimed to largely be in compliance with Gettleman’s order. But some issues are a work in progress.
For example, they said bedding and mattresses have been ordered, but they need as many as five business days for delivery. And Tuesday is a federal holiday.
“If we come out and we don’t have the stuff to implement the [temporary restraining order] yet, you’re going to be seeing it prematurely,” Brady told the magistrate.
McNally moved forward anyway, given the limited timeline of Gettleman’s order.
Lawyers in the case also met with Gettleman earlier in the day. Though he said he was “pleased” to hear the Justice Department say it’s complying, he heard complaints from the plaintiffs that attorneys are still not able to contact clients in Broadview.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys Alexa Van Brunt and Samuel Cole explained that a phone number they’d been given simply connects to a menu, where the options eventually lead the phone to disconnect.
They also said messages sent to a new email address have been met with silence.
Brady told Gettleman the phone number and email were only recently created, so “maybe it doesn’t work yet.”
Gettleman told the government to try to fix the issue with the phone. He also said two hours is a reasonable amount of time for someone to respond to the attorneys’ emails.
“Let’s see how it works in the next few days,” he said.