Diana Santillana Galeano, a Chicago daycare worker, has been released from immigration detention after a federal judge ruled her arrest was unlawful.
Her attorney said she was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Clay county, Indiana, on Wednesday night. The release followed a ruling by US district judge Jeremy Daniel, who ordered the government to provide Galeano with a bond hearing by 18 November. Daniel wrote that the government acknowledged several courts, including his own, had found mandatory detention unlawful.
In a statement following her release, Galeano said: “I am so grateful to everyone who has advocated on my behalf, and on behalf of the countless others who have experienced similar trauma over recent months in the Chicago area … I love our community and the children I teach, and I can’t wait to see them again.”
Her arrest last week sparked outrage after federal agents were caught on video dragging her from the Rayito de Sol daycare centre in Chicago’s North Side. At one point, agents appeared to slam her face against the daycare’s glass doors before pinning her against a parked car and handcuffing her. Witnesses reported hearing Galeano say in Spanish “I have papers”, with the arrest unfolding in front of children.
City and state lawmakers quickly denounced the arrest, which came amid ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz”, a series of aggressive immigration crackdowns across the Chicago area. Tricia McLaughlin, homeland security department spokesperson, denied last week that the daycare itself had been targeted, saying instead: “Officers attempted to conduct a targeted traffic stop of this female illegal alien from Colombia.”
