Sen. Dick Durbin on Tuesday sent a scathing letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking for information about U.S. citizens who have wrongfully been caught in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement “dragnet.”
Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and the ranking member of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, disputed Noem’s claim in late October that no American citizens were arrested or detained during the recent deportation “blitz” of the Chicago area, citing the Chicago Sun-Times’ reporting. He argued that Noem’s assertion was “patently false.”
“The disturbing reality is that many American citizens have been caught in the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and violent enforcement dragnet across the country,” Durbin wrote.
“Masked, armed agents have aggressively arrested U.S. citizens; pushed them into unmarked vehicles; tased, punched and fired pepper balls at them; and, in some cases, wrongly detained them in immigration detention facilities for days, even weeks.”
A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Durbin said President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration enforcement operations have led to the wrongful detention of at least 170 people, including roughly two dozen who were “held for more than one day without being able to contact anyone, including their lawyers.”
At least 40 American citizens were arrested in Illinois between late August and early November, Durbin said, highlighting a period that covers “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Durbin said a recent Supreme Court decision halting an order barring immigration agents from making stops based on people’s race, ethnicity and jobs had “left Black and Brown Americans justifiably afraid that they will be targeted for immigration stops.”
He highlighted the detention of a handful of citizens, including a retired caterer and an Air Force veteran who were zip-tied during a military-style raid of a South Shore apartment complex in September; staffers for Ald. Mike Rodriguez who were swept up in Little Village and Cicero; and a 15-year-old boy who was detained in the East Side neighborhood and held for hours without being allowed to call family or a lawyer.
Although federal judges in Chicago have issued rulings seeking to rein in the feds, Durbin said immigration agents have continued “to conduct chaotic and cruel immigration enforcement raids and arrests that are harming and traumatizing communities in Illinois and across the country.”
Durbin requested a range of records related to the arrests of citizens in immigration raids by Dec. 16, including state-by-state tallies and related complaints and policies.
He said Congressional oversight is critical, given that Noem has “gutted offices responsible for overseeing ICE officers’ conduct and ensuring accountability for unlawful arrests and detention.”