Cummings is giving the Department of Justice one week to produce a list of all immigrants that fall in that category out of the 615 arrested by federal agents. If the detainees don’t have a deportation order or criminal record, Cummings said he would release them on a $1,500 bond. He has also prohibited the government from trying to convince them to sign voluntary removal documents in the meantime.
Most were processed in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Bridgeview, a Chicago suburb, but others have been sent to detention centers across the country. A DOJ attorney, William Weiland, said that at least 12 of the detainees were a security risk, and asked the government to stay any releases to vet all of them. Cummings said that the government could have that time, ordering that government attorneys and the detainees’ counsel turn in a status report on November 21.
Still, Cummings’s decision is another rebuke to the Trump administration’s immigration efforts in the Chicago metro area, which have included conducting violent raids in the city’s neighborhoods, as well as using weapons such as tear gas against protesters.
