Attorneys seek ICE’s release of Honduras native detained in Broadview

BROADVIEW, Ill. (WGN) – Protesters and attorneys are calling for the release of a grandmother who was arrested by ICE agents in Chicago earlier this week.

Attorneys for Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda told WGN-TV they were able to see her briefly Friday inside a processing center in Broadview. They’ve been trying to find her since Wednesday and said all she wanted to know was if her daughter was okay.

According to Pineda’s legal team, there’s now a federal order granting her temporary stay, but they don’t know if it will be enough to prevent her from being deported.

Attorneys, advocated and elected officials are calling for ICE to release Pineda, claiming she’s been sleeping on the floor of a Broadview immigration processing center since Wednesday.

Pineda was one of several immigrants detained at an immigration supervision office in the South Loop.

“Gladis is from Honduras. She came here with her young daughter seeking refuge. Honduras is a very unstable nation currently,” Pineda’s attorney Nadia Singh said.

On Friday, Pineda’s legal team said the 7th Circuit District Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay order while an appeal in her asylum case is pending. They said what happens next is up to ICE.

“We’ve also filed a stay with ICE discretion that was filed at the office downtown. In the past, ICE officers were able to exercise that discretion based on our conversation that there are now additional layers of bureaucracy and I’m sure back logged processing that are now in place,” Singh said.

Meanwhile, a petition calling for Pineda’s release has collected over 9,000 signatures.

“Constitutional rights are being violated. We are all watching as constitutional rights are being violated. There is no due process,” Ald. Rossana Rodriguez (33th Ward).

The Trump administration has vowed to go after “the worst of the worst,” but adovcates said Pineda is a construction worker with no criminal record.

According to advocates, Pineda has been compliant on what’s been required of her since 2017 and has been wearing an ankle monitor for several months as instructed.

“This administration is diverting historic levels of law enforcement personnel and resources away from narcotics and violent crime to Trump’s mass deportation effort. Individuals wit no record of dangerous crime are being rounded up at great expense and removed even when they are awaiting a court hearing. America is not safer or stronger with this Trump plan,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said.

Other attorneys said the process of finding someone detained by ICE is frustrating. They’ve learned the online database is not being updated fast enough due to the volume of people now being processed. They are doing all they can to get in contact with ICE officials before Pineda is put on an airplane.

“She has no criminal conviction. There’s no negative factors that demonstrate she’s a danger to anyone,” AJ Johnson Reyes, senior staff attorney at Beyond Legal Aid, said.

There are also concerns for the conditions inside the processing center.

WGN-TV was told there are no beds and there are a number of people waiting to be processed.

WGN-TV has reached out to ICE asking for comment on this case and allegations of conditions inside this center. They confirmed they received our request and we are waiting for their response.