
Families in Limbo as Thousands Detained in Chicago Area
Clip: 12/15/2025 | 5m 33sVideo has Closed Captions
HHS said more than 3,000 people were detained by immigration agents in "Operation Midway Blitz."
The suburban Broadview ICE detention facility has been a flashpoint for protests. Here are the stories of two men who were detained there.
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Families in Limbo as Thousands Detained in Chicago Area
Clip: 12/15/2025 | 5m 33sVideo has Closed Captions
The suburban Broadview ICE detention facility has been a flashpoint for protests. Here are the stories of two men who were detained there.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipimpact of the immigration enforcement search here has been wide and varied.
Most dramatic, perhaps the human toll are Joanna Hernandez is in Broadview tonight with a look at what some detainees say they've experienced Joanna.
>> And Brian is that's right.
We're going to hear 2 stories of 2 different individuals who pastor this facility, the broader view detention processing facility has been a flash point for protest during the peak of Operation Midway Blitz.
Now, this is a facility where people are detained across the Chicago area and are brought before being transferred to a different facility.
Advocates have said that conditions inside the facility are inhumane and the people that we spoke to tell us more about it.
>> They've been targeting a lot of that.
Stand for a while.
Then, you know, they really a lot of landscapers go there.
>> It's been more than a month since Alexander Gonzalez says federal immigration agents took her stepfather while he was working as a landscaper in Evanston.
I'll cause me He's like Yo.
just got here and, you know, the first thing I will show I don't know how to react.
This video footage captures an ICE officer pursuing Adriana Leon Gonzales before his son says he threw himself to the ground and surrendered.
I felt so many emotions all at once.
I was on the you know, obviously crying.
>> Those are very hard moment.
I couldn't believe Now the step siblings are fighting to bring him home.
>> He's currently detained in Michigan compared to broaden you.
It's it's it's a way better.
How would you describe what he said and he would sleep in their own floor.
you know, just what 30 around him.
>> The family says Adrian Little Gonzalez came from a cubicle more than 25 years ago and built his life here, raising his children in the United States.
>> He closed his eyes and I can say but a passion and his son like I know he's always been there for no matter what.
>> Their case is just one of hundreds still unresolved since the start of Operation Midway Blitz.
It's reported by the Department of Homeland Security that more than 3,000 people have been detained in Chicago and nearby communities.
Among them is Johnny Okay.
on Monday.
>> In the mean whether he's a communicator, believe it.
>> The NATO MS A says he fled to Chicago because of political danger in the Dominican Republic 2 years ago.
>> I mean, that's the only an opponent of an agent with the native can you can get up was enough for some of that.
And I think thing that I knew.
You somebody that I knew he shows us a paper trail of his case.
>> His immigration check and slip reads No, wants no warrants.
He says he would hear about arrests happening around immigration court but never thought it would happen to him.
Then came his second check in in October.
>> No one can it.
to it be.
Maybe a. Both that died at the also fit.
There you go.
Okay.
Kath.
that doesn't open Selena got any of the pie.
>> Now he's speaking out about what he says was inhumane treatment conditions when he was detained.
He holds back tears as he describes how he pleaded with an officer to allow him to use the bathroom.
But he was granted permission.
>> A could put an end.
>> He says the weeks that followed were in experience, he'll never forget.
As a team.
We but okay.
>> Do you have the 8 of us going a different?
>> them?
Issa says he was first sent to broad view where he described being placed in a room with more than 200 men and having nowhere to sleep.
After 3 days, he was transferred to a detention facility in St.
Louis, Missouri, where he spent nearly 2 weeks from there.
He was shuffle to Texas.
Then back to St.
Louis.
And finally to Indiana.
>> Yeah, you know that I don't.
But I like it indicative mean it?
And big area need pull.
fitting that, though.
>> He's talking about his experiences from in the detention facility in Michigan with the help of a lawyer.
He's now back home in Chicago while his case remains open.
>> I wasn't going to getting a lot of open so that you know, in the >> As they wait to hear from their attorney, the Gonzales is visits and phone calls are their only connection to him.
>> He might tell me that he's you know, he's up and a bit better.
Maybe to not concern me.
Concern us so long.
But a video called him a bit of called him that I've spoken to him a lot of times.
You know, he gets more minutes on the phone.
I just would like everyone to know.
Like I said, >> And we have an update from the attorney representing the Gonzalez family.
A court order for habeas corpus has been granting meaning authorities must either present.
And before a judge or release him on bond within 6 days, the
The Debate Over US Immigration Reform
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 12/15/2025 | 7m 53s | Some say there should be more pathways to citizenship. Others call for tougher restrictions. (7m 53s)
How 'Operation Midway Blitz' Has Affected Chicagoans
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 12/15/2025 | 10m 16s | From the financial impact to the spiritual, WTTW News explores the lasting effects. (10m 16s)
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