CHICAGO (WLS) — Mariana Cabrera recounted the tense hours her family endured, uncertain of her father’s whereabouts. Their only lead was a brief three-minute surveillance clip.
On the morning of October 3, just past 11 a.m., her father, Ramiro Cabrera, was busy setting up a tent in a Crestwood business parking lot. He was accompanied by his nephew and a colleague, all working for their family enterprise, “Cabrera Rental Center.”
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During this routine task, an unexpected event occurred—a white van rolled into the parking lot.
The footage obtained by ABC7 Chicago I-Team reveals the scene as federal agents, clad in fatigues, emerged from the van. They engaged briefly with Cabrera and his nephew before swiftly escorting them into the van, which then departed.
This incident echoed the experiences of many families caught in the web of “Operation Midway Blitz,” a government initiative intensifying immigration enforcement throughout the Chicago area.
Court documents indicate that Ramiro Cabrera was apprehended by federal agents, marking the end of his more than two-decade-long stay in the U.S. without legal authorization.
Now, Cabrera is getting legal assistance from an unexpected ally, who has experience straight from the bench: a former assistant chief immigration judge who was fired by the Trump Administration earlier this year.
The arrest and detention of Cabrera, a 51-year-old father of four American children with no criminal record, also brings to light allegations of poor conditions inside a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility at the center of serious controversy locally.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have vehemently denied any “subprime conditions” in the facility.
When Fernanda Cabrera first saw the surveillance footage of her father being detained, she told the I-Team she was speechless.
Chicago federal intervention: Tracking surge in immigration enforcement operations | Live updates
“You see on social media other videos of people getting taken by ICE, and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is insane,’” Fernanda Cabrera said. “And then, seeing a video and saying, ‘That’s my father. That’s my dad.’ He was at work. It was pretty heartbreaking. It felt very unreal.”
Mariana Cabrera agreed, adding that after agents detained her father and his nephew, the business’ supplies and truck were left in the parking lot. Even her father’s wallet was left behind. It was hours until she said her father first called the family to tell them what happened from the Broadview ICE facility.
“The moment they put him in a van, we didn’t know where he was going,” Mariana Cabrera said.
That’s when the family’s attorney, former U.S. Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jennifer Peyton stepped in and acted quickly, filing a petition in federal court to halt their father’s transfer to an ICE detention facility farther away from the Chicago family.
“We filed a petition in federal court called the (writ of) habeas because I did not want him going to Louisiana or Texas,” Peyton told the I-Team.
The I-Team was there when Peyton packed up her office, after she was abruptly fired from helping lead Chicago’s immigration court this past July.
According to the termination letter shared with the I-Team, no reason was given for Peyton’s termination.
Now, Peyton said she’s representing the kinds of clients she used to rule on.
“As an immigration judge, I would hear cases where respondents told me about their governments acting with impunity,” Peyton said. “And now, I’m seeing it myself, which is insane.”
Examples of impunity, Peyton says, include how the Broadview ICE processing facility is used.
That’s where Cabrera was taken, and where most, if not all, migrants detained by federal agents in the Chicago area pass through.
“My client that was taken there told me that (Broadview is) so overrun with detainees that they’re sleeping inside the bathrooms, on the floors,” Peyton said. “They’re not offered showers. They’re held there for multiple days, people upon people upon people, with no access to counsel.”
Democratic lawmakers said they have been turned away from the Broadview location after requesting a tour of the facility.
“We just want to go in and look at this facility, and see what the conditions are. And they will not let us in,” U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on Oct. 10.
On that same day, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said, “I’ve never had this kind of stonewalling by any presidential administration. Something’s going on in there that they don’t want us to see.”
DHS did not respond to questions about lawmakers being denied access to Broadview.
A spokesperson for DHS rejected claims of “subprime conditions” inside the Broadview facility, telling the I-Team, “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens… All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”
In a court filing tied to Cabrera’s case, Peyton writes, “Broadview is a black hole. When my clients are there, I am unable to speak to them or contact them.
“With ICE officers, I’ve said, ‘Can I visit?’ No, you can’t. ‘Can I make phone calls?’ No, you can’t. ‘How do I get a hold of them?’ They can call you. And I’m like, that’s not- that’s insufficient.”
Cabrera’s daughters said when their father was given a phone call from the Broadview facility, they were left feeling worried about him.
“We got one phone call for about maybe one minute, just saying where he was and just his voice was just so shaken,” Mariana Cabrera said. “There’s so many people in there trying to get phone calls that, I mean, still today, we’re struggling to get phone calls.”
Cabrera was eventually transferred to an ICE detention facility in Indiana.
“His absence is definitely felt,” Fernanda Cabrera said, “He has his, like, specific spot on our couch at home. And seeing it empty every night, it’s heartbreaking.”
Bond Decision Could Impact Millions
Later this week, Peyton will argue before a federal judge that Cabrera’s detention was an “unlawful violation of due process and an incorrect interpretation of immigration law.”
The government plans to contest that.
But that “interpretation of immigration law” centers around a quiet decision released last month in the immigration court system that could impact millions of people across the country.
On Sept. 5, the Board of Immigration Appeals, the top administrative body which interprets and applies immigration laws, released a new decision titled, “Matter of Yajure Hurtado.”
For the first time in American history, the decision ruled immigration judges can no longer grant bond for immigrants who entered the U.S. without authorization.
Immigrant advocates say it all but guarantees mandatory detention for those detained.
A spokesperson for DHS called the ruling, “a big win for our ICE attorneys securing our ability to detain illegal aliens until they are deported.”
ABC 7 Chief Legal Affairs Analyst Gil Soffer told the I-Team it’s a “monumental decision.”
“Obviously, the effect of it is to make it impossible for people to post and be released on bond. Whereas in the past, there wasn’t that automatic rule,” Soffer said. “So, it’s a very significant change, and I think we’re going to see a real fight over it.”
With regards to Cabrera’s habeas petition filed in federal court, “What we’re seeing in this habeas petition is, for the first time, just taking issue with a decision of the immigration courts that really has changed the picture dramatically. It’s a different kind of argument because it’s a different kind of ruling without precedent.”
Immigrant advocates and attorneys say it’s a total sea change.
“It overturned decades of case law, of regulations and laws indicating that for someone who is here without authorization, that they are entitled to a bond if they can show that they are not a flight risk or danger to the community,” Peyton said. “For someone who is here without authorization, the only remedy now is to go to federal court.”
Cabrera’s court date is scheduled for Oct. 23.
His daughter, Mariana, remains hopeful her father will return home to see his grandchildren soon.
“I have two kiddos with another one on the way,” Cabrera said. “It’s been heartbreaking for the oldest three, and for us to go to abuelo’s house and to not see abuelo.”
