In yet another blow to immigration enforcement, a federal judge in Illinois is reportedly preparing to order the mass release of thousands of illegal aliens detained during ICE’s “Operation Blitz,” a nationwide crackdown on criminal and repeat immigration violators.
According to ABC7 Chicago, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, a Biden appointee, is weighing whether to grant what’s called “equitable relief” that could see federal immigration authorities forced to release thousands of detainees into so-called “alternatives to detention” programs, ankle monitors, smartphone check-ins, and other ineffective tracking methods widely criticized as loopholes by law enforcement officers.
The case stems from the 2022 Castañon Nava settlement, a consent decree that limits ICE agents’ ability to make warrantless arrests in Illinois and several neighboring states.
The decree requires agents to pre-determine “probable cause” that a person is in the U.S. illegally and poses a flight risk, conditions immigration advocates now claim were violated in recent raids.
Last month, Judge Cummings determined that federal agents had breached the terms of a consent decree established under the 2022 Castañon Nava settlement, which restricts warrantless arrests in the Chicago area.
Attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), a left-wing activist group, argue that ICE’s arrests of more than 3,000 illegal aliens under “Operation Blitz” breached that agreement.
NIJC’s Mark Fleming said, “Our initial analysis is that it’s over 3,000 arrests. We’ve started to dig into the case file that they produced to us, and the vast majority are violations. If they did not have a prior order of removal, in almost all circumstances, they’ve been uniformly violating the consent decree.”
WATCH:
A Federal Judge is preparing to order potentially thousands of illegals detained by ICE during Operation Blitz in Chicago released back onto the streets
“Attorneys arguing there have been thousands of people arrested in violation of a federal consent decree in the Chicago area —… pic.twitter.com/i3rHDA0xiG
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) November 11, 2025
More from ABC7 Chicago:
Attorneys on both sides of the case have been working to identify how many people arrested by immigration agents this year violated the previously agreed-upon consent decree.
As part of that consent decree, ICE agreed to certain conditions for arresting someone in the Chicago area without a warrant, including pre-determining whether there is probable cause to believe the person is in the country illegally, and whether they are also a flight risk; two requirements that immigrant advocates say have been flouted in hundreds cases, including the recent arrest at a Chicago day care.
[…]
Attorneys representing the Department of Homeland Security have argued that Congress stripped federal courts of their authority to grant parole to large groups of immigrants in ICE custody.
In their filings, government attorneys argue, “Congress has vested the authority to grant parole solely with the Secretary of Homeland Security… Federal courts cannot order the Department of Homeland Security to release any aliens on parole because Congress has stripped them of that authority.”
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