Federal immigration officers detained two adults and a minor at Cook County’s Bridgeview Courthouse on Wednesday in the latest clash at a local court, despite a state law that prohibits warrantless civil immigration arrests in and around the buildings.
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Matthew Hendrickson, a spokesperson for the Cook County public defender’s office, confirmed in a statement to the Tribune that there were two separate arrests at the southwest suburban courthouse.
Around 9 a.m., federal agents “took a woman and a young child into custody as they were attempting to enter the courthouse,” according to Hendrickson. Hours later, agents took another person into custody after his first appearance in court on a misdemeanor retail theft case, Hendrickson said.
It was not clear whether the agents had a judicial warrant.
In a statement Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two people — Denny Gabriel Perez Ospino and Saray Yuliandris Gonzalez-Gonzalez — in Bridgeview on Wednesday. The spokesperson said the two are Venezuelan nationals who entered the United States in 2023 under the Biden administration. DHS stated that their backgrounds included retail theft charges.
Cook County court records show Perez Ospino was arrested in late May for allegedly taking three items valued at $46 from a Walmart in Evergreen Park and was subsequently charged with misdemeanor retail theft. At a status hearing at the Bridgeview courthouse on Wednesday, Perez Ospino entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with 20 hours of community service, records show, an agreement that would allow him to avoid a conviction on his record if completed.
Gonzalez-Gonzalez was also arrested in late May for allegedly taking two items valued $22 from the same Evergreen Park Walmart, per court records. She likewise faces a misdemeanor count of retail theft. Gonzalez-Gonzalez was scheduled for an initial court date on Wednesday morning in Bridgeview, but didn’t make the appearance, records show.
The DHS spokesperson stated that an immigration judge in May 2024 issued a final order of removal for Gonzalez-Gonzalez and her son.
The sheriff’s office, in response to questions over the federal immigration activity at the courthouse, confirmed one of the reported arrests, stating that sheriff’s court deputies were working the security post inside the courthouse when they saw a man run through the front door of the courthouse and through all security checkpoints. Deputies stopped the man after he passed all checkpoints.
The sheriff’s office said deputies did not know why the man ran through security or “what his intentions were.” At the same time, two people wearing vests with police identifiers, who were later identified as ICE officers, entered the courthouse trying to apprehend the man, the sheriff’s office stated.
The officers began applying handcuffs to the man as he lay on the floor. Meanwhile, two members of the public also entered the courthouse and approached the security checkpoint while filming the events, according to the sheriff’s office. Those filming were also stopped by sheriff’s deputies.
The ICE agents removed the man from the courthouse to a vehicle waiting outside. Agents told a responding court lieutenant they had a valid arrest warrant and that the man taken into custody was wanted on a criminal matter, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The Sheriff’s Office staff did not assist or participate in the arrest,” the sheriff’s office stated.
Hendrickson, with the public defender’s office, also stated that “agents claimed they had a judicial arrest warrant,” but added that they “did not show the warrant to anyone.”
“It does not appear the sheriff’s office asked to see the warrant,” Hendrickson stated.
A video widely circulating on social media Wednesday appears to show the second arrest. Online footage shows a man lying on the ground of the courthouse as two apparent federal officers in green vests hold him down near a metal detector. The two masked agents are then seen dragging the man out onto the sidewalk, his hands restrained behind his back. People can be heard repeatedly asking the agents if they have a warrant. The agents do not reply.
The agents then place the man into a dark-colored SUV, footage shows. A few seconds later, a person in a Cook County sheriff’s office uniform is seen greeting an immigration agent.
The sheriff’s office, in its statement, noted that it was made aware of interactions between two sheriff’s deputies and members of the public who were filming the ICE agent’s activities after the man was taken into custody.
“Those interactions have been forwarded to our Office of Professional Review to determine whether there were any violations of Sheriff’s Office policy,” the sheriff’s office stated.
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In a statement, state Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, a Bridgeview Democrat, decried the enforcement activity, calling the detentions “a gross violation of the U.S. Constitution and Illinois law.”
Rashid stated that he had reached out to the sheriff’s office for answers.
“There must be accountability for masked agents breaking state law and acting with impunity,” he stated. “I am directing my office to expend all resources at our discretion to get to the bottom of what happened today.”
A day after the arrests, 18 local elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, issued a joint statement condemning the arrests and calling for an independent investigation of the enforcement.
Wednesday’s arrests came amid a recent uptick in local federal immigration enforcement activity in recent months. Last week, federal agents detained a Polish immigrant after chasing his car through the city’s Dunning neighborhood. Earlier this month, agents chased and detained a man in Albany Park, per several published reports.
More than six months have passed since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown descended on the Chicago area. The 64-day local mass deportation campaign resulted in roughly 3,800 arrests of noncitizens and nearly 2,500 deportations — most of them involving people with no criminal record.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a measure into law in December that prohibits civil arrests in courthouses or the immediate surrounding area of individuals participating in judicial proceedings or accompanying participants to court.
Those who violate the law, which allows for the arrest of people with outstanding criminal warrants, could face civil penalties for false imprisonment, including statutory damages of up to $10,000.
The protections for court participants were part of a broader measure Democratic lawmakers approved during their legislative session last fall in response to Operation Midway Blitz that also included provisions aimed at safeguarding hospital patients, college students, and children and families at daycare centers.
In October, as Midway Blitz entered its second month, then-Chief Judge Timothy Evans enacted a general order prohibiting warrantless arrests by immigration agents in or around county courthouses. The order came after Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. and a coalition of legal groups and social service organizations petitioned the chief judge to take steps to prevent immigration arrests around the courthouses.
The order ruled that any person attending court as a witness, potential witness, or party to the proceedings shall not be subject to civil arrest absent a judicial warrant while in a courthouse or its environs. The order defines “environs” as public entryways, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots.
Court facilities have historically been spared when it comes to immigration enforcement in order to create conditions in which defendants and witnesses are likely to show up for appearances.
Interim Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance issued in January 2025 shortly after President Donald Trump took office states that immigration officers or agents “may conduct civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present at a specific location,” the ICE website reads. Guidance, however, stipulates that such action may take place if it is “not precluded by laws imposed by the jurisdiction.”
Guidance advises that civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses “should, to the extent practicable, continue to take place in non-public areas of the courthouse, be conducted in collaboration with court security staff, and use the court building’s non-public entrances and exits.”
Hendrickson called the arrests “clear violations” of state law and county orders.
“Because federal agents know they are not allowed to arrest people on civil immigration matters without a judicial warrant, they appear to simply claim they have one,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson said the conduct displayed by agents on Wednesday was “illegal and deeply concerning.”
The Tribune’s Dan Petrella and Madeline Buckley contributed.
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