A US federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release on bail of hundreds of people arrested by immigration police since September in the state of Illinois, particularly in the Chicago area.
In September, the Trump administration launched a federal immigration police (ICE) operation, called the “Midway blitz”, which it said targeted “illegal immigrants terrorizing Americans” in Illinois (the north of the country) and its main city of Chicago, which is run by the Democratic Party.
The Department of Homeland Security, on which ICE relies, on Wednesday boasted that, thanks to this operation, it “led to a historic decline in crime in Chicago by J.B. Pritzker and Brandon Johnson,” referring to the governor of Illinois and the city’s mayor. In its press release, the ministry highlighted declining numbers in the categories of murders, shootings and even robberies.
But on Wednesday, a federal judge in Chicago ruled in favor of about 600 lawyers who challenged the legality of their arrests. He concluded that these arrests were made without reasonable cause or warrant, several media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, reported.
A new setback for Donald Trump
As a result, he announced that he would order the release on $1,500 bail and monitoring measures, such as electronic bracelets, of any detainee who does not pose a security risk. The Department of Homeland Security condemned X’s decision: “Now an activist judge is directly endangering American lives by ordering the release of 615 illegal aliens from custody.”
It’s a new legal setback for the Trump administration in Illinois, where courts and then a federal appeals court in October suspended the deployment of National Guard troops in Chicago and the region.
Since June, Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles (west), Washington and Memphis (south), against the advice of local Democratic authorities.
The American president has made the fight against illegal immigration a top priority, speaking of an “invasion” of the United States by “foreign criminals” and speaking widely about expelling immigrants.
