The scene was tense and emotional as immigrant rights advocates gathered outside an immigration processing center in Broadview to demand the immediate release of Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda — a longtime Chicago resident and community leader — who was detained Wednesday.
Chavez was one of at least 10 immigrants arrested by federal immigration agents when she showed up for an immigration appointment in the South Loop.
Advocates and political leaders who were there said ICE agents used excessive force to quell the protests that took place as agents were carrying out the arrests.
Outside the Broadview processing center, some activists yelled “we are here” and “you are not alone” in Spanish, and some people broke down in tears as vehicles went in and out of the facility carrying more people. An ambulance arrived. Police officers stood outside the gates, asking people not to block the area.
Chavez’s arrest comes amid a wave of similar arrests across the country. The Trump administration aims to ramp up its efforts to increase the number of arrests made each day as part of its months-long campaign against immigration.
Advocates from Organizing Communities Against Deportation say Chavez received a message on Monday instructing her to report to the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office located at 2245 S. Michigan Ave. for a “check-in.” The program allows ICE to monitor people in deportation proceedings without taking them into custody and requires regular check-ins.
Advocates say Chavez, who is from Honduras, came to the appointment Wednesday with her two attorneys, who were then ordered to leave the building.
Chavez came to the United States “for the safety of her family,” said Xanat Sobrevilla, an organizer with Organizing Communities Against Deportation, who said the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program is a place where people go “in good faith as their cases move along.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has defended the arrests, saying everyone who was arrested had “executable final orders of removal by an immigration judge and had not complied with that order.”
But advocates say that’s not entirely true.
“We’re still learning about the specifics of each person,” said Antonio Gutierrez, an organizer with Organizing Communities Against Deportation, who said his organization is getting in contact with some of the family members of those arrested. “The general comment all of them had [removal orders] is untrue.”
Chavez has applied for asylum, and her attorneys say she was in full compliance with the law. AJ Johnson Reyes, one of the attorneys representing her, said the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a temporary stay of removal while her case is pending before that court.
Carlos Pineda, who owns a heating and air conditioning business, was also outside the Broadview center. He’d taken his friend Jose Aleman, who he says is “like a brother,” to a check-in appointment Wednesday in the South Loop.
But Aleman, who is from El Salvador and had an ankle monitor, never came out. Pineda says Aleman came to the United States seeking asylum. He said two immigration attorneys did a poor job representing him. He eventually hired a third lawyer to appeal a removal order.
Pineda and his girlfriend, Stephanie Tlatenchi, cried and embraced each other as they watched immigrants being loaded into vans.
Aleman “is the sole provider of their family,” Tlatenchi said, crying. “Now, his daughter’s opportunities are at risk. Her future that he worked so hard for. All the sacrifices that he made.”