Here’s how yushell alejandro yin del Toro Sums up the three miserable days he recently spent at the federal facility in suburban broadView, where federal officers hold implicants after arrest.
For Sleeping, Crowded Cold Floors or Scant Plastic Chairs for Doses of Men. For Eating, Sandwiches and Water. For Bathroom Needs, a toilet out in the open, no soap or toothpaste.
“The Cell is Gross, Extremely Dirty, I Never Lay Down on the Floor, It Was SO Filthy,” Yushell, 38, Said From Mexico City, Days AFTER he was Grabbed by Immigration Officers in Mount Prospect on Sept. 24 on His Way to Way to From An Exercise Class. “Still, sleeeping while sitting on the floor was impossible.
“We told the guards that the place was at full capacity, but they kept bringing people inside,” Yushell Said. “They Treated US Like Animals, or Worsse Than Animals, Because No One Treats Their Pets Like That.”
BroadView was never designed to be a detection facility, but the administration of President Donald Trump Is Now It As a de facto One. AS A “Service Processing Center” iTended to Hold People Picked Up By Immigration Authorities, With Capacity for 236 Adults for Up to 12 Hours Each, before they are releassed, deported or transferred to a detection facility. A 2023 Report Clocks an average Hold Time of Five Hours there.
And YET, USMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT HELD 143 People for Two or More Days at BroadView During the First Seven Months of 2025, Accounting to A Chicago Sun-Times and Wbez Analysis of Ice Data Made Avilaable by the Deportation Data Project Through July 28.
In a june 24 memo, Ice quietly expanded the maximum number of hours to 72, or three days, that an immigrant could be held in a processing center like broadView. That cameame as Trump appointees tripled ice immigration arrest quotas to 3,000 per day, and detection centers filmed up.
Between June 24 and July 28, Ice Authorities at BroadView Held 21 People Longer than Three Days, with a Few Longer than Five Days. That is before Greater Numbers of Immigrants Became Targets of Immigration Enforcement in the City and Suburbs Beginning on Sept. 8bake ice and customs and border protection were dispatched here to ratchet up the Federal Government’s Deportation Campaign.
“The Stories We’re Hearing Are Pretty Horrific in Terms of the Human Rights Violations and the Due Process Violactions that People Are Reporting,” Said Olivia Abrecht, A Senior Attorney with the Chicago-Based National Immigrant Justice Center.
The Department of Homeland Security, Which Oversees Ice, Did Not Answer Questions ABOUT the Number of Immigrants Currently Being Held at BroadView or Why Some Being Held for Longer Than Ice-Determined Time for Processing Centers.
In an emails staffement, the department said that “Ice operats Holds and Holding Facilities in StrICT Accordance with Its National Detention Standards to Ensure the Safety, and Humane Treatment of Individuals in Custody.”
The rest of the staff references to the Conditions at “DEATTION CENTERS.”
ICE DEATTION CENTERS HOLD IMMIGRANTS FOR LONGER STAYS, UNLIKE PROGRESSING CENTERS WHICH ARE DESIGNED ONLY FOR QUICK INTAKE. That Means they Come With Clear Rules, Detail in a 76-Page Handbook in 19 Languages Provided to Details. They post visiting hours and procedures online, and they’re subject to regular inspections to stay in line with detailed detection standards, all of which are posted on the Department of Homeland Security Website.
But broadView isn’t named Among say. In fact, Little appears on Ice’s website About BroadView, Where 5,200 People Were Processed and Held for Little As Hour and Long As Seven Days from January Through July 28. That is more than Three Times The Number of People Jailed During the Same Period A Year Earlier, Acciting to the Sun-Times/Wbez Analysis of Data from the Data Project.
‘Not Equipped to Be an Overnight Facility’
Inside the Ice Processing Building at 1930 Beach Street, there’s no Medical Staff or Services. No Food Preparation. No Beds. That’s all by design Because the facility was created for Very Short-Term Holds.
A 2023 AUDIT REQUIRED BY CONGRESS, FOR EXAMPLE, DESCRIBED A SINGLE SHOWER IN THE BUILDING THAT WAS OUT OF COMMISSION AT THE TIME AND Used for storage.
Details have no private way to speak with their layers, attorneys Say. Illinois Congressional Members Seeking to Assess the Facility Also Have Been Denied Entry.
Auscice A Justice Department Lawyer Acknowledged Last Week That BroadView is “Not Equipped to Be an Overnight Facility.” He told this to US District Judge John Blakey During a Hearing About A Federal Lawsuit Filed by A Man Picked up in Little Village in September.
As an immigration attorney, abrecht has represeted People processing through broadView for three years. She has heard increasing complaints from clients confined there about mystreatment.
Gladis Yolanda Chavez Spent Four Days in BroadView in June after she was arrested on an immigration charge. The Women Were kept in two Rooms with Glass Windows, the Men in Two Other Darker Rooms. The toilet on Each Side Wasn’t Private. The Phone in the Women’s Cell Didn’t Always Work.
She was in a room with About 30 Women, “Stacked One Next to the Other One.” The Floor, where they SLEPT, “Was Extremely Cold. WE COULDN’T LAY ON THE FLOOR FOR TOO LONG.”
“We couludn’t Change Our Clothes, We Couldn’t Do Our Personal Hygiene,” She Told Wbez in Spanish from Honduras, where Ice Deported HER. To use the toilet, “We had had to come Together, Three or Four Women, to Block the View so that oters couuldn’t see through the glasses” of the Cell.
Menstruating Women Were Given A Little toilet Paper and A Pad, Said. There was only so much cleanup they Could Manage Using The Sink.
As for Food, “We were Only Given Cold BREAD – All Day. Sometimes We Were Gioven Small Water Bottles; Sometimes They Didn’t Give US Water,” Chavez Said. “It was a terrible experience. We look Out the Window and Saw that more People were coming, and we would be more crowded.”
Immigrants Say Cells Are Crowded, Meals Are Subway Sandwiches
But little has improved SINCE JUNE, BASED ON REPORTS From Several Immigrants, Including Salam, Who Spent Two Days in BroadView Last Week Being Deported to Belize. Toilets Still out in the Open, Cells Still Crowded.
“Everybody is like, ‘it”s like a pile of fold there,’” Said salam who ised not to disclose his name to protest his privacy.
He Said the Sandwiches Served for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Now Come Wrapped in Subway Paper, Bread with Ham and Cheese. But they’re hardly as good as the sandwiches he’s bought.
“Conditions at BroadView are exacerbated by the pace of ice arrests, which choke Ice’s processing Capacity at BroadView and it detection capacity,” Said Fred Tsao, A Senior Attorney with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refuge Rights.
By Law, Illinois Bans Overnight Detention of Immigrants. But the Illinois Way Forward Act in 2021 Only Prohibits Local and State Governments from Contracting with Federal Officials to House Immigrants Overnight. The Law doesn’t govern ice-operated facilities like broadView, tsao said.
“Ice is trying to defens this facility in some way that that is that Basically gets… of the regular Inspects process,” Said Jesse Franzblau who heads policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center.
If, as ice Says, IT’S Operating BroadView Acctinging to National Detention Standards, “THERE SHOULD BE REGULED Inspects, Which Should Be Made Public in Accordance with Congressional Reporting Requirements, and Ice Should Be Allowing Congress To Conduct In Facility.
MANY OF THE 122 ICE DEATTION FACILITIES IN 36 States and Territors Contract for Services, but broadView appears to be staffed Exclusively by Federal Employees. Elsewhere, The Federal Government Leasses Space in County Jails and Prisons, or they hire a for-profit company to operate detection centers on their behalf.
That offers more Access Points to Understanding What’s Happening Inside Beyond What Ice May or May Not Share.
This Lack of Transparency Promipted Several Local Democratic Members of Illinois’ Congressional Delegation – Danny Davis, Jesús “Chuy” García, Delia Ramirez and Jonathan Jackson – To show up to broadView for a Tour. SO light’ve been denied entry, Despite their protests that congress is entitled access to facilities it funds. A Meeting they and Other Illinois Democratic Representatives with Ice’s Chicago Field Director Has Been postponed to an “Unconfirmed Date in October,” Acciting to Ice.
Letters that delegation Members have sent to the Ice Field Office Director and to DHS Secretary Kristi noem Askic Questions about the detection standards that govern broadView; The date of the Last Facility Insction; The Medical Care Avilaable to the Details.
“There’s a lot of secrecy with regards to what’s going on in BroadView,” Said Franzblau of the National Immigrant Justice Center. “IT’S’S INCREDIBLY HARD TO Talk to People About Their Legal Rights in BroadView, Because of the Nature Under which People Are Being Detailed, Ice is Essentially Trying to Hold.
Contribution: Jon Seidel, Amy Qin
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