chicago — Immigration authorities arrested an employee at a Chicago day care and preschool at work while dropping off children on Wednesday, according to witnesses, reflecting the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive enforcement tactics.
The employee ran from a car into the Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center after officers pulled into the parking lot immediately after her, Alderman Matt Martin said, citing witness accounts. He added that the employee was detained between two glass doors at the entrance while she was telling the authorities that she was an American citizen. Authorities entered to question several people around 7 a.m., when the facility opened, according to witnesses.
This was unusual even in light of Operation Midway Blitz, which has resulted in the arrests of more than 3,000 immigrants in the Chicago area since early September. The agents have landed From a Black Hawk helicopter in a midnight raid on an apartment building, he appeared with overwhelming force in the entertainment districts and fired tear gas amid the protests.
Many of the officers arrested Wednesday were wearing clothing that said “POLICE ICE,” indicating they were U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to Martin, who said he gathered information from witnesses. A video circulating online showed at least one officer wearing a vest with the words “ICE” written on it as the woman was handcuffed and escorted from the building.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rayito de Sol, which operates eight locations in Illinois and Minnesota, also did not respond to a request for comment. After the arrest, her school in Roscoe Village, Chicago, closed for the day.
Parents gathered outside the preschool, sandwiched between dental offices in a mall, looking angry and dismayed.
Esmeralda Rosales rushed from work while her husband dropped off their 9-month-old child to learn how to show support to employees. She said the woman who was arrested was her child’s teacher.
“These are the kindest, kindest people. They don’t deserve, these kids don’t deserve to live in this situation. This is terrible, terrible, terrible,” she said.
Chris Wyden, whose 4-month-old child is taught by the detained woman, said the operation occurred “at the school during its busiest delivery period when children and families must witness a teacher being forcibly removed and clients being outfitted with practical equipment.”
Adam Gonzalez was taking his child to Rayito on Wednesday morning to drop him off at preschool when he saw a commotion outside the school, with people screaming and federal immigration officers wearing body armor. He said something wasn’t right for him, so he left his child in the car and went to record the daycare teacher being detained by federal agents.
“I thought I should go record this,” Gonzalez said. “The world needs to see what is happening, that this is not an illusion, that this is real.”
Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol official who became the face of the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles and Chicago. He defended vigorously Management tactics in the face of threats and protests.
“I had no reason to think it would be this bad, but it’s a lot worse than I ever thought,” he said in an interview Monday. He called his clients “sanctuary busters,” a reference to so-called sanctuary cities, such as Chicago, that limit cooperation with immigration authorities.
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Associated Press writer Sarah Reda in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed.