A lawsuit filed against a Chicago-area immigration facility alleges that detainees are being held in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, sparking outrage. The Broadview facility, which has become a focal point for protests against Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies, is accused of packing up to 100 people into small rooms overnight, forcing them to sleep on top of each other or in bathrooms with urine-soaked floors.
The complaint describes holding rooms infested with cockroaches, centipedes, and spiders, with blood and bodily fluids on sinks and walls. Windows are sealed or boarded up, bright security lights remain on all night, women are denied menstrual products, and rooms “smell strongly of feces, urine, and body odor,” according to the plaintiffs. One detainee wrote, “They treated us like animals, or worse than animals, because no one treats their pets like that.”
The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, accuses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of operating the facility as a de facto detention centre, despite it being designated a processing centre. The average holding time has increased from five hours in 2023 to two days or more, the lawsuit claims. Detainees are reportedly denied basic hygiene items, prescription medication, and medical care, and cannot shower or change clothes.
Homeland Security has denied the allegations, with assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin stating that “any claims there are subprime conditions at the Broadview ICE facility are false.” She described Broadview as a processing centre and said that “some of the worst of the worst including pedophiles, gang members, and rapists have been processed through the facility in recent weeks.” The department suggested that the complaints contribute to death threats against federal agents.
Daily protests outside the facility target Operation Midway Blitz, a Trump administration initiative that has increased immigration arrests. The lawsuit seeks to hold ICE accountable for conditions that the ACLU says are unconstitutional and threaten to coerce people into sacrificing their rights.
