This is part of our series of daily recaps of ICE activity in the Chicago region. Have a tip we should check out? Email newsroom@blockclubchi.org.

NORTH CENTER — Immigration attorneys are challenging the warrantless arrest this week of a North Center daycare teacher, saying it violated a 2022 consent decree.

Attorneys with the firm Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym., Ltd. filed a habeas corpus petition with the U.S. District Court in Chicago on Thursday, seeking Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano’s immediate release or a bond hearing.

Santillana Galeano, an infant educator at Rayito de Sol daycare and preschool in North Center, was arrested by ICE agents shortly after 7 a.m. on Wednesday. The agents had followed Santillana Galeano as she drove to work and chased her inside Rayito de Sol. The agents did not have a warrant, according to court documents.

Diana Santillana Galeano worked as an infant educator at Rayito de Sol and preschool. Credit: Provided

Last month, a federal judge concluded dozens of recent warrantless immigration arrests were made in violation of a consent decree banning warrantless arrests unless agents have probable cause to believe someone is in the United States unlawfully and is a flight risk.

Attorneys representing Santillana Galeano said her arrest violates the consent decree. Her attorneys wrote that detaining Santillana Galeano “without a bond redetermination hearing to determine whether [she] is a flight risk or danger to others violates [her] right to due process.”

Santillana Galeano came to the United States from Colombia “due to threats to her safety” in March 2023, according to court documents. She filed an application for asylum or “withholding of removal,” and was granted employment authorization through 2029.

In a statement, Charlie Wysong, an attorney with Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym., Ltd. said he expects Santillana Galeano’s case will go before a federal judge next week. He said Santillana Galeano is being held at an immigration facility in Clark County, Indiana. According to the federal court docket, a judge has scheduled an in-person status hearing for Wednesday.

“Ms. Santillana belongs at home and with the Rayito de Sol community, where she is a beloved and respected member,” Wysong said. “Our daycare centers and other schools must be safe places where our children are protected from harm.”

Rayito de Sol daycare as seen on Nov. 5, 2025. Credit: Molly DeVore/ Block Club Chicago

Security footage from Wednesday shows agents walking into other rooms throughout the daycare and preschool, including rooms that had children in them, said Ald. Matt Martin (47th).

Rayito parents have called the incident “traumatizing.” A GoFundMe set up to help with Santillana Galeano’s legal fees has already raised more than $130,000.

“The idea of a child seeing their caretaker with whom they have a strong attachment to being taken away in distress, it’s going to impact every single child whether they saw it or heard about it,” Rayito parent Abby Salat previously told Block Club.

Arne Duncan, Chicago CRED CEO and former U.S. Secretary of Education, speaks at a Nov. 7, 2025 press event at The University Club, 76 E. Monroe St. He’s flanked by civic leaders who are denouncing President Donald Trump’s immigration surge in Chicago and its suburbs. Credit: Alex V. Hernandez/Block Club Chicago

Business, Faith, Nonprofit Leaders Speak Out Against Federal Tactics

A group of civic leaders from Chicago’s business, civic, faith, higher education and philanthropic communities gathered Friday to denounce “the pain and fear and trauma” President Donald Trump’s federal immigration agents have subjected Chicagoans to in recent months.

“I absolutely recognize that fighting helicopters and masked men armed armed with assault weapons and tear gas canisters, fighting them with whistles … we know that’s not a fair fight,” said Arne Duncan, Chicago CRED CEO and former U.S. Secretary of Education. “We know that’s not a fair fight, but we also understand it’s the right fight, and it is a righteous fight, and one that we must win and can win and will win together.

“The odds never favored David. They’re always with Goliath. Well, you know how that story ended.”

Duncan was joined by more than 30 civic leaders for the event at The University Club, 76 E. Monroe St., to denounce the tactics federal immigration agents have used across the city and its suburbs.

The federal immigration operations in Chicago and is suburbs have “no end date,” federal officials previously said, but that won’t deter Friday’s group from pushing back the way Americans did when groups like the Ku Klux Klan appeared unbeatable, Duncan said.

“The moral leadership of this, of groups like this, and people across the city, again, this is uniting our city in ways that they never believed,” Duncan said.

Law-abiding, tax-paying neighbors across Chicago’s immigrant communities are being targeted by the Trump administration’s aggressive deportations, said Rebecca Shi, American Business Immigration Coalition CEO. Her group represents 1,700 CEOs from across the United States.

In addition to being “morally wrong,” targeting people with zero criminal convictions and removing them from the workforce hurts local economies, Shi said. And while federal officials repeatedly claim they’re only targeting “the worst of the worst,” their own data shows more than 70 percent of people arrested during this year’s immigration surge have zero criminal convictions, Shi said.

“When you remove productive workers, restaurant and farm workers, hotel staff; when you remove landscapers, construction crews, car washers; when you remove child care workers and senior care providers, you reduce the labor force and you push up prices of food, of housing, of care for everyone,” Shi said.

One in five workers in Chicago are immigrants, and this group — including undocumented people — contributes $22 billion in taxes and local spending every year, Shi said.

“They’re not just part of our economy. They drive it,” Shi said. “That’s why Operation Midway Blitz is economically reckless, morally wrong and politically foolish. These raids tear apart families, destabilize industries and they drive up costs for all Americans.”

Businesses in largely Hispanic communities like Archer Heights, Midway, Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, West Lawn and Belmont Cragin are struggling to keep their doors open as potential customers and employees stay home due to fear of being caught in immigration enforcement operations.

Jaime di Paulo, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO, said grants to help small, independent business owners are on the horizon, and his group is lobbying state officials for tax breaks to help the businesses survive this unprecedented crisis.

Multiple speakers at Friday’s event also quoted or referenced German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller’s 1946 famous condemnation of fascism, “First They Came.”

Niemöller’s words are critical of people who remained silent as Nazis systemically purged different groups as part of Hitler’s rise to power, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Chicagoans are facing “unprecedented times” as they face “military-style tactics” while armed only with whistles and cellphones in their effort to “confront injustice,” said Michael Fassnacht, Clayco chief growth officer.

“During a very dark period in my birth country, in the 40s, pastor Martin Niemöller wrote his famous poem,” said Fassnacht, who came to Chicago from Germany more than 20 years ago. “His powerful work, a strong reminder that silence in the face of injustice eventually leaves no one left to speak. Let us not wait until that day. Let us speak up today for all of our fellow Chicagoans.”

Faith community members hold a prayer vigil near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at 1930 Beach St. in Broadview, Ill. on Nov. 7, 2025. Credit: Ronit Bezalel for Block Club Chicago

Happening In Suburbs

Around 10:45 a.m. federal immigration agents were seen arresting a man on Lincoln Avenue in the suburb of Skokie, according to a video posted to social media by independent journalist Amanda Moore.

Border Patrol Boss Tells Agents In LA ‘It’s Our F–king City’ In Newly Released Video: The video, taken June 7, was made public this week in a Chicago court case. In it, the Border Patrol boss also says “arrest as many people that touch you as you want to” — and later confirmed the statement applies to Chicago as well.

All Residents To Leave As Court Takes Control Of South Shore Building Raided By Feds: A county judge appointed a receiver for the building Friday, who will help its few remaining residents move “immediately” after property management failed to fully fix hazards after the raid.

FROM CHALKBEAT CHICAGO: Attendance Drops At Chicago Schools In Communities With Increased Immigration Enforcement: In the four weeks since the start of Operation Midway Blitz, attendance at one school with a large immigrant population dropped by 4 percentage points — nearly three times the attendance drop citywide.

FROM SUN-TIMES: 14 Suburban Moms Arrested In Sit-In Protest Outside Broadview ICE Facility: The mothers sat in a circle on Beach Street on Friday to “demand an end” to the immigration raids that have swept through the Chicago area since the Trump administration launched “Operation Midway Blitz.”

FROM TRIBUNE: ICE Detainees Named As Plaintiffs In Lawsuit Ordered Released By Judge: A federal judge has ordered the release of two immigration detainees who came forward as plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit, alleging inhumane conditions at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview.

FROM TRIBUNE: ‘How Can We Help?’ Lincoln Square School Rallies Around Family After ICE Takes Parent Of Special Needs Child: Teachers reached out to the child’s mother, Ingrid Guanume, who told them federal immigration agents had taken her husband, Brayan Plata, while working at his landscaping job in Skokie.

FROM CBS2: Sen. Tammy Duckworth Calls Again For Urgent Probe Of Federal Agents’ Use Of Force In Chicago: Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth sent another letter to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Friday, saying there is not enough urgency in honoring her request for an investigation into use of force by federal immigration agents in Chicago.

FROM WTTW: Where Major Lawsuits Over Broadview ICE Conditions, Use of Force Stand After Big Week in Court: Federal judges this week have filed sweeping orders reining in federal immigration agents’ use of force and requiring Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to immediately improve “inhumane” living conditions at its suburban processing facility.

FROM WTTW: Conditions At Broadview ICE Facility Improving, Feds Say, But Attorneys For Detainees Remain Skeptical: A temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman this week demanded improvements to “unacceptable” living conditions at the suburban processing facility.

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