The increased presence of Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in the Chicago region has begun to affect Will County and other suburban areas.

Since the summer, multiple immigrants residing in Joliet and surrounding communities have been detained by ICE, including at least one man who was arrested inside the Will County courthouse while attending court with a family member for an unrelated traffic violation.

Despite repeated requests by local officials and The Herald-News for ICE to acknowledge its presence in the city and its involvement in these arrests, the agency has refused to confirm any actions that have been taken. The Joliet Police Department and immigration attorneys have confirmed the stories.

Sharlyn Grace, the deputy public defender for policy at the Cook County Public Defenders Office, noted that ICE has not coordinated with court authorities either, especially in cases where immigrants have been detained while at court on other business.

“There is no coordination or cooperation with us,” Grace said. “We’ve had clients not show up and later we have to identify them and find out they’ve been detained. There is no regard for the state court process or any sharing of information. The client’s other cases are forced to the side, and they could end up with warrants issued against them inappropriately, because the court wasn’t notified that they were detained.”

Grace said she suspects ICE is accessing public documents to find the names of people to target without warrants.

The Cook County Public Defenders Office’s immigration team is currently representing some immigrants picked up by ICE in Will County due to its involvement with the Midwest Immigrants Defenders Alliance (MIDA), an organization formed in 2022 to provide legal counsel to detained immigrants with financial need.

Under U.S. law, immigrants facing deportation are not entitled to a public defender, like defendants in a criminal case. However, in 2022, Illinois and Cook County passed laws that enabled the Cook County Public Defender’s Office to provide legal counsel to immigrants.

The newly created pilot program then joined with the National Immigrant Justice Center, The Resurrection Project, a nonprofit rooted in Chicago’s Mexican immigrant community but now extends across the state, and The Immigration Project to create MIDA, which accepts referrals for cases from other immigrant rights organizations around the state.

Out-of-state detentions

Further rule changes have enabled these attorneys to continue representing clients remotely in other jurisdictions, as many immigration cases are being heard in other states.

“They [ICE] transfer people fairly regularly,” said Grace. “A lot of immigrants detained in Illinois are being held in Indiana and Kentucky, with others increasingly as far as Texas and Louisiana. More of these clients used to be able to be released while their cases were pending, but because of the Trump administration’s detention goals, blanket policies have been passed leading to very few people being released.”

The State of Illinois has laws that prohibit local law enforcement from contracting with ICE, so detained immigrants are not allowed to be held in Illinois prisons and jail facilities, necessitating the remote proceedings.

“These are civil proceedings and the push for detention is motivated by a desire to punish,” Grace said. “It’s not appropriate and it’s certainly a drastic change from a year ago.”

Even for detainees in Indiana and Kentucky, cases are being heard remotely by judges around the country in states like Texas and Tennessee.

“Because hearings are remote, and since the cases are federal, the government can ask to move hearings to various jurisdictions around the country to spread out the workload, as well as having cases heard in jurisdictions they believe will be more favorable to the outcomes they want,” said Matthew Hendrickson, the spokesperson for the Cook County Public Defenders Office.

Detained respondents do not have the ability to request a change of venue. They can oppose a change of venue requested by the government, but with legal counsel able to attend any hearing across the country remotely, Hendrickson notes it is a difficult argument to win because relocating does not deprive them of counsel.

Courthouse arrests

With ICE more regularly making appearances at courthouses –including at domestic violence court in Chicago – and often refusing to acknowledge their movements or identify themselves except to other law enforcement, Grace said it is putting immigrants in an impossible position.

“They are faced with the choice of ‘do I risk my freedom or risk getting a warrant for my arrest,’” Grace said.

Grace noted that the Cook County Public Defender’s Office encourages all residents with business before a court to attend their court dates, but to take precautions.

“We advise all our clients to come to court, but to remember that they can request remote appearances if they are concerned about being detained,” said Grace. “We recommend they do that, but realize it may not always be available.”

In cases in which immigrants must come to court in person, Grace recommends attending with a friend or family.

“There’s not a lot that can be done if you arrive and ICE is there,” she conceded. “Which is why we believe as lawyers that they should not be allowed to make these arrests at courthouses. The system relies on people being able to come to court without threats to their liberty and lives.”

If a resident is detained by ICE, she said they or their families are encouraged by MIDA to contact the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights at 1-855-435-7693 for referrals on how to proceed and to connect to legal resources.

Grace said that MIDA and immigration lawyers around the state are encouraging Illinois and county governments to adopt a law prohibiting ICE from taking action on court property without signed warrants. Legislation on the issue could be introduced in Springfield in the near future.

The MacArthur Justice Center and the Cook County Public Defenders’ Office also issued a call with a dozen other immigration and legal services organizations for Cook County to implement such a ban in and around its courthouses.

“As ICE’s aggressive enforcement operations continue in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, we call on the Chief Judge to use his administrative authority to protect the court system and the people of Cook County,” said Director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Chicago office Alexa Van Brunt. “In our democracy, everyone has a right to access the courts without fear or intimidation. Survivors of domestic violence should not be forced to choose between protecting their safety and the safety of their family and possible deportation.”

“These arrests should be concerning to anyone who cares about justice and transparency,” said Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr. “Federal agents conducting arrests in our courthouses on civil warrants has had a profound chilling effect on trust in our legal system and has hurt the public’s ability to feel safe in seeking out the services of the circuit court.”

Federal agents conducting arrests, including wearing masks and refusing to identify their agencies, “also puts judges, attorneys, court employees and members of the public at great risk to their personal safety,” Mitchell, Jr. said.

Hendrickson said that as of Oct. 2, there had been no response from the Chief Judge’s office, except that the petition was under review.

Hendrickson said the Cook County Public Defender’s Office did not know how long the review would take, but that other legal service organizations were welcome to use the petition as a template for their own counties.

“We haven’t heard much from other counties, but we suspect they may be waiting to see what the Chief Judge does,” Hendrickson said.