Federal judge in Chicago finds ICE repeatedly violated consent decree over 'warrantless arrests'

[Jilly_in_VA]

A Chicago federal judge has extended a nationwide consent decree requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to better document and report probable cause for immigration arrests and found the agency repeatedly violated the 2022 agreement by making “warrantless arrests” both before and during “Operation Midway Blitz.”

In his 52-page ruling, which has implications for immigration-enforcement operations across the country, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said ICE had improperly told its field offices over the summer that the consent decree had been canceled.

He also called into question the recent immigration raid on an apartment building in South Shore, where agents in military gear burst through doors and zip-tied residents regardless of citizenship. And the judge also took particular issue with a practice by ICE agents of carrying blank warrant forms known as I-200s with them on missions and filling them out at the scene.

The plaintiffs argued the blank warrants were a way for ICE to circumvent the requirement that agents have probable cause someone is a flight risk before making a so-called “collateral arrest,” meaning detaining someone without a prior written warrant. Cummings agreed, writing in his opinion “ICE lacked statutory and regulatory authority to engage in its policy of issuing I-200 warrants to collaterals in the field.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/08/federal-judge-chicago-ice-violated-consent-decree/

Pretty spurious argument, ICE.....