Castañon Nava v. Department of Homeland Security

​UPDATE: Consent Decree Extended. See below and here for more details.

Over a six-day period in May 2018, ICE arrested and detained more than 100 people across the Chicago area in “Operation Keep Safe.” Among other tactics, DHS and ICE stopped people who officers thought may be Latino, made warrantless arrests, and posed as local police stopping cars for minor traffic issues.

Within weeks of this operation, two Chicago residents who had been swept up by DHS and ICE’s unlawful practices sued in federal court. Through their counsel at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), the plaintiffs sought to represent a class of individuals who had been or would be similarly unlawfully stopped and detained by ICE.

These men were soon joined by additional individual plaintiffs and two organizations, Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), which serve the communities affected by ICE’s unlawful invasions.

The federal government asked the court to dismiss the case, and the ACLU of Illinois joined as co-counsel to oppose that request and further support the plaintiffs’ demands for injunctive relief.

On December 1, 2021, a federal judge granted preliminary approval to a settlement agreement between our clients and the Department of Homeland Security. The judge granted final approval of the settlement agreement, making it a consent decree in February 2022.

Among other terms, the consent decree requires ICE to adopt a nationwide policy barring many vehicle stops and warrantless, “collateral” arrests, and provides us a way to advocate for ICE detainees who are arrested without warrants in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, or Kentucky to challenge detentions that violate the decree.

In March 2025, with NIJC on behalf of ICIRR and OCAD, we filed an enforcement motion because Defendants had wrongfully arrested at least 22 class members, all Latino immigrants, in Chicago and Liberty, Missouri. We told the court that DHS and ICE agents regularly carried blank warrants and filled them out only after detaining someone. In May, we also filed a motion asking the court to extend the decree in light of repeated violations by DHS and ICE in the wake of new federal civil immigration enforcement. In September, we filed two notices of 30 more violations of the decree – warrantless arrests of Latino immigrants as part of ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz. On October 7, 2025, a federal court judge granted our motion to enforce the decree and extended the decree until February 2, 2026.

The judge’s ruling requires DHS and ICE to reissue its Broadcast Policy on Warrantless Arrests nationwide and produce any information for people arrested in the Chicagoland area since June 2025 so that we could assess if ICE violated the consent decree. The order requires DHS and ICE to meet with us about violations of the decree to resolve them, and remedies can include the release of individuals from detention. Shortly after beginning this process, DHS and ICE filed a motion for an extension of time for eight weeks to produce arrest documents. Because such a delay would mean that our clients would be enduring detention for months in inhumane conditions and facing pressure to voluntarily depart the country, we filed a countermotion seeking the release of over six hundred people on alternatives to detention such as ankle monitors, bonds, and check-ins with DHS and ICE.

On November 13, 2025, the judge ordered the government to release 13 individuals who had been arrested and detained unlawfully under the consent decree. The judge rejected the government’s argument that all noncitizens who entered the country without inspection and who were arrested in the interior of the country were subject to “mandatory detention” under federal immigration law. The judge explained that hundreds of courts across the country rejected the government’s new definition of who could be subject to “mandatory detention” and that definition defied the plain reading of the law. Then, the judge ordered the government to release up to an additional 615 people on or before November 21st – either with a $1500 bond or under another alternative to detention (such as an ankle monitor) unless the government could justify continued detention as a high public safety risk. The government filed a report showing that only a small handful of the 615 had any criminal record, although others were still labeled as a “high risk” by the government.

The government appealed both the extension of the decree and the order to release those likely arrested in violation of the decree and moved to stay both orders as an emergency. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted the emergency stay blocking the release of hundreds of people from detention. Then, after oral argument, on December 11, 2025, the Seventh Circuit refused to stay the order extending the decree but stayed the release of hundreds detained people on alternatives to detention. The Seventh Circuit agreed with the district court that the federal government could not apply its new definition of who could be mandatorily detained to block the release of individuals whose arrests violated the decree. On February 3, 2026, the parties had oral argument on the underlying appeal and are awaiting a decision.

Because the consent decree is in effect, we continue to meet and confer with the government to identify and seek release of individuals arrested in violation of the decree. On January 30, 2026, we notified the district court of additional multiple repeated violations of the decree and asked the district court to extend the decree again to account for the stay. On February 2, 2026, we filed another motion to enforce the consent decree because the government agreed that 46 people’s arrests violated the decree but the government refused to release them or release them without conditions such as parole, bond, or mandated check-ins with ICE.

Shortly after, we filed another motion to enforce the decree to get the release of an additional 50 people who we believe Defendants arrested without a warrant or probable cause. On February 17, 2026, the court ordered the release of four people still in custody of ICE whose arrests violated the decree, that Defendants give 12 hours-notice of releasing anyone, and for Defendants to provide a master list to us of all foreign nationals who were arrested without warrants or subject to a field warrant from June 22, 2025 to the present by February 20. The court found that the consent decree is in effect while it considers the pending motions to enforce. We continue to work for the release of everyone who remains in custody in violation of the consent decree.