Chicago daycare worker detained by immigration agents at drop-off time for children

Audio By Carbonatix

CHICAGO (AP) — An employee of a Chicago daycare center and preschool was detained by immigration authorities at work as children were being dropped off Wednesday, according to witnesses, reflecting the Trump administration's increasingly aggressive enforcement tactics.

The employee ran from a vehicle into the Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center after officers pulled in the parking lot right after her, Alderman Matt Martin said, citing witness accounts. The employee was detained at the entry between two glass doors while telling authorities she has papers, he said. Authorities went inside to question several people around 7 a.m., when the facility opened, according to witnesses.

It was unusual even under “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has resulted in more than 3,000 immigration arrests in the Chicago area since early September. Agents have rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter in a middle-of-the night apartment building raid, appeared with overwhelming force in recreational areas and launched tear gas amid protests.

Several officers at Wednesday's arrest wore clothing that read “POLICE ICE,” identifying them as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to Martin, adding that he gathered information from witnesses. Video circulating online showed at least one officer in a vest that said “ICE” as the woman was restrained and removed from the building.

“ICE law enforcement did NOT target a Daycare. Officers attempted to conduct a targeted traffic stop of this female illegal alien from Colombia," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a social media post. "Officers attempted to pull over this vehicle, which was registered to a female illegal alien, with sirens and emergency lights, but the male driver refused to pull the vehicle over."

At a news conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley said the employee had a work permit and agents followed her into the school without a warrant.

“They didn’t just walk in chasing one person. They went into multiple rooms asking and looking for teachers while children were present,” U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez said at the news conference.

Rayito de Sol, which operates eight locations in Illinois and Minnesota, did not respond to a request for comment. Following the incident, its school in Chicago's Roscoe Village closed for the day.

Parents gathered outside the preschool, sandwiched between dental offices in a strip mall, looking angered and dismayed.

Esmeralda Rosales, whose husband dropped off their 9-month-old child, rushed from work to show support for the staff. She said the woman detained was her child's teacher.

“These are the nicest, kindest people. They don’t deserve, these children don’t deserve to be living through this. This is just terrible, terrible, terrible,” she said.

Chris Widen, whose 4-month old is taught by the woman who was detained, said the operation came "at the school during the busiest time of drop-off where kids and families have to witness a teacher being forcibly removed and agents kitted up in tactical gear.”

Adam Gonzalez was dropping off his child at preschool when he saw a commotion outside the school, with people yelling and federal immigration officers in body armor. Something didn’t feel right to him, he said, so he began recording the worker's detention.

“The world needs to see what’s happening, that this is not fake, that this is real,” Gonzalez said.

“In Chicago, it seems like you’re only one or two degrees of separation from someone who’s had a nice experience at this point,” Rayito parent Jason Wirth said after learning what happened on the way to drop off his child. “These are people who are intended to protect us, and I think we feel preyed upon instead.”

Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who has become a face of the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles and Chicago, has staunchly defended the administration's tactics in the face of threats and protests.

“I didn’t have any reason to think it would be this bad, but it’s far worse than I ever thought,” he said in an interview Monday. He called his agents “sanctuary busters," a swipe at so-called sanctuary cities, like Chicago, that limit cooperation with immigration authorities.

___

This version has been corrected to show Matt Martin said the woman told authorities she has “papers,” not that she was a U.S. citizen, and fixes Chris Widen's quote to say agents wore “tactical gear” not “practical gear.”

___

Associated Press writer Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed.