Operation Midway Blitz, the federal operation launched in the Chicago area last month to arrest and detain people in the country illegally, has made immigration enforcement more visible and controversial than in the past.

President Donald Trump has deployed National Guard troops to the region and federal agents are arresting people at schools, courthouses and businesses. The arrests are often captured on video by immigration advocates and posted to social media.

But what happens after the arrest? Here is a look how the immigration enforcement process works after a person is detained.

Q. What happens when a person is arrested by federal immigration agents?

A. It depends on whether they are charged with an immigration violation or a crime.

An immigration violation, such as overstaying a visa, can be a civil matter, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In that case, the person may be detained and appear before an immigration officer or an immigration court judge, depending on what kind of removal order they face.

Those who have been charged with a federal crime, such as illegal reentry, appear before a district court judge. Typically, cases originating in Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will and Kane counties are heard in the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division court in Chicago.

Q. Where are arrestees held?

A. Criminal detainees could be held in a Bureau of Prisons facility, such as the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago, or in other facilities that have contracted with the federal government. For example, the Kankakee County jail has long had a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal detainees. Kane County used to have such a contract.

A person with a case in immigration court could be held in detention centers, privately owned prisons or county jails that have contracted with ICE. For example, a man who was detained at Elgin Community College in September is being detained at the Greene County jail in Missouri, records show. A man arrested in the raid of a house in Elgin, which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem attended, is being held in a private prison in Michigan. Illinois prohibits state jails from holding immigration-related detainees.

Q. How can I find out who has been arrested?

A. For criminal cases, you can check a name on the Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator at bop.gov/inmateloc/. You can also search the federal court case system, called PACER.uscourts.gov.

For immigration detainees, check the Online Detainee Locator System at locator.ice.gov/odls/#/search. You will have to know either the person’s full name and country of birth, or their alien number and country of birth.

Q. What is the Broadview facility?

A. It is classified as a service staging facility, according to ICE. A 2020 audit of the facility, done to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, noted it could hold up to 236 people in several rooms of what was once a warehouse. At that time, the average daily population was 9.9 people. The report said people were typically kept there for less than 12 hours. The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported, however, that people are now being kept there several days.

Q. All these acronyms: ICE, CBP, DHS, HSI, DOJ, ERO, ATF. Who/what are they?

A. DHS is the Department of Homeland Security. DHS oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, and Homeland Security Investigations. ICE oversees Enforcement and Removal Operations teams. Other federal agencies are lending personnel and support to DHS, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Marshals, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251014/news/we-see-the-ice-arrests-but-what-happens-next-for-detainees/