A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release roughly 615 illegal immigrants nabbed in Chicago immigration raids.
During a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, a Biden appointee, ruled that hundreds of detainees must be granted bond by Nov. 21, according to ABC7. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must provide Cummings with a list of detainees by Friday.
DHS hit back at the ruling Wednesday afternoon, calling Cummings an “activist judge.”
“At every turn activist judges, sanctuary politicians, and violent rioters have actively tried to prevent our law enforcement officers from arresting and removing the worst of the worst,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire.
“Now an ACTIVIST JUDGE is putting the lives of Americans directly at risk by ordering 615 illegal aliens be released into the community,” she added.
The ruling comes after immigration advocates at the National Immigrant Justice Center argued that federal immigration agents violated a consent decree in Illinois when they arrested the detainees.
Last month, Cummings ruled that the feds’ warrantless arrests in Chicago violated a previous consent decree that required officers to evaluate whether there is probable cause and if the target is a flight risk before making arrests.
Warrantless arrests are routine for federal immigration authorities, who often conduct surveillance and utilize informants to verify targets.
One of the illegal immigrants who could be released is Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, who allegedly fled a traffic stop in Chicago before running into a daycare to hide from federal agents. Galeano was granted a bond hearing, which will be held on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Democratic Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley twisted the story of Galeano’s arrest, falsely accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of snatching “a preschool teacher without a warrant IN FRONT OF CHILDREN in my district.”
But DHS debunked Quigley’s claims.
“Congressman, you are deliberately misrepresenting the facts,” the agency wrote on X.
“ICE law enforcement did NOT target a daycare and were only at this location because the female illegal alien fled inside,” they added.
Galeano crossed the border in 2023 and had her children smuggled into the country last month, DHS said.
During her latest arrest, the Colombian woman tried to lie to about her identity and denied that she knew the male driver in her car, saying she “just picked him up from a bus stop,” DHS said.
