OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
12:55 PM – Thursday, November 13, 2025
A federal judge has ordered the release of over 300 detainees that were previously captured in the midst of “Operation Midway Blitz” — carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the effort in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed in a drunk driving hit-and-run car wreck caused by illegal alien Julio Cucul-Bol in Illinois. The ICE operation had targeted “criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the agency added.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the DHS to release 13 individuals arrested in Illinois and transferred to other states, ruling that their detentions violated the “Castañon Nava settlement,” which prohibits immigration agents from making warrantless arrests.
While the DHS has argued for case-by-case evaluations, plaintiffs claim to have evidence of collateral arrests comprising the rest.
The department faces three deadlines: by Friday this week, it must provide details on the status and flight risk of 615 ICE detainees allegedly taken without a warrant between June and October; by Wednesday, November 19th, DHS must submit status reports on individuals arrested in Chicago by ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP); and by Friday, November 21st, it must release 313 people detained in violation of the settlement — as long as they are deemed a low flight risk.
“There would be nothing for me to do if the arrests of the people here were done in accordance with the agreement,” Cummings said. “But in the event that there are allegations that the people are arrested in violation of this consent decree, I will react and take appropriate actions.”
Anyone determined not to be a security risk is to be released on $1,500 bond and monitored, which may include ankle monitoring.
Prosecutors said gathering all of the required information would prove to be “a significant challenge,” and suggested the department could still appeal the judge’s order, Axios reported.
“This case is going to show that all of this, all of the tactics from [Border Patrol Chief Gregory] Bovino, all of the tactics from ICE, have been unlawful in the vast, vast majority of arrests,” defense attorney Mark Fleming, of the National Immigrant Justice Center, told the Chicago Tribune.
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