CHICAGO — A 56-year-old widower, a single parent and sole caretaker for four U.S. citizen children, had secured an immigration court date with a good case for being granted bail, according to his attorney.
But despite entering the U.S. legally and securing a work permit, a lawsuit alleges, immigration agents made the man sign a voluntary departure waiver while he was housed in allegedly inhumane conditions at the west suburban Broadview, Illinois, holding facility.
Later that day, he was “on the other side of the border.”
The man’s case is detailed in a sweeping class-action lawsuit filed on Friday against immigration officials, alleging dirty and unsafe conditions at the federal holding facility in Broadview where they say arrestees are being warehoused for days on end.
The complaint, filed in federal court in Chicago, also accuses officials of denying detainees their right to consult with lawyers, effectively creating a “black box” where those arrested disappear with little ability to contact attorneys.
“His children, who are already grieving the loss of their mother from earlier this year, now must process the sudden loss of their father,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit is the first class-action effort to bring accountability and relief to detainees, who allegedly are housed there in overcrowded rooms with little contact with the outside world. It is filed on behalf of Pablo Moreno Gonzalez and Felipe Agustin Zamacona, who are both currently detained at Broadview.
An ambulance pulls out from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility on Beach Street on Oct. 13, 2025, in Broadview. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Named as defendants are Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs, Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, interim Chicago ICE Field Office Director Samuel Olson and other parties.
Agency officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Conditions at the west suburban processing facility have come under harsh scrutiny as the Trump administration has ratcheted up immigration enforcement measures in the Chicago area.
An August investigation by the Tribune found that the typical detainee was being held two or three days in the building that is not equipped for overnight stays, far longer than the usual five or so hours in years past.
“Everyone, no matter their legal status, has the right to access counsel and to not be subject to horrific and inhumane conditions,” said lead counsel on the suit Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office, in a statement.
The complaint paints a grim picture of circumstances at the facility, which largely has been subject to an information vacuum with few opportunities for attorneys, advocates and members of the media to assess conditions there.
But during the “Operation Midway Blitz” enforcement action, the complaint alleges, the consequences of the beefed-up raids and edicts for mandatory detention on a building meant only as a way station have been “dire, and wholly predictable.”
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People are being confined in holding cells with dozens of others, the complaint says, and denied basic necessities like enough food and water, menstrual products and soap.
They are forced to sleep on plastic chairs or the concrete floor, the complaint alleges.
The lights are usually kept on all night, leading to sleep deprivation, the suit says. The temperature swings from too hot during the day to freezing cold at night.
Conditions at the facility have further eroded since the beginning of “Operation Midway Blitz” in September, according to the complaint.
To make matters worse, the complaint says, detainees are often prevented from speaking to their lawyers or obtaining counsel.
“Officers tell attorneys they cannot visit their clients, and attorneys who try to contact their clients inside the facility are rebuffed or ignored. Attorney telephone calls are sent to an unattended line, and their calls and emails go unanswered,” the complaint says.
Meanwhile, the complaint says, officers are coercing people to sign documents that relinquish their rights, as officials try to deport them without going before an immigration judge.
“Defendants are transferring people to distant detention facilities—or sending them out of the country outright—before their attorneys can locate them and intervene,” according to the complaint.
Members of Congress, faith leaders and others have also been turned away from Broadview, the suit says.
“By blocking access to detainees inside Broadview, Defendants have created a black box in which to disappear people from the U.S. justice and immigration systems,” the complaint alleges.
Moreno Gonzalez immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and has been here for about 32 years, according to the complaint. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two of his children, who are U.S. citizens. Moreno Gonzalez was arrested on Wednesday while walking near West Foster Avenue and North Pulaski Road.
Also from Mexico, Agustin Zamacona has lived in the U.S. almost 30 years — most of his life, the complaint said. He was arrested in Wheeling while working as a delivery driver.
Accounts from detainees and their attorneys detail a litany of abuses, from malnutrition and medical neglect to racial slurs and dangerous overcrowding.
There are four small holding rooms at the facility, according to the lawsuit. The two largest are about 30 feet by 30 feet, it said. Sometimes there is not enough room for detainees to lie on the floor as dozens if not more than 100 people are packed in for days on end, the lawsuit said. One woman said the detainees were confined in cells “like a pile of fish.”
“We told the guards that the place was at full capacity, but they kept bringing people inside,” another detainee said, according to the lawsuit. “They treated us like animals, or worse than animals, because no one treats their pets like that.”
Broadview cells smell like sweat and body odor as men are forced to stand shoulder to shoulder.
One detainee, Claudia Pereira Guevara, said she asked for a broom to try and clean the cell but was refused, according to the lawsuit.
“Officers never cleaned the room during the five days she was detained from October 2 to 7. There was no soap, no sanitizer, no showers, and no way to wash herself,” the lawsuit alleged. “She was forced to wear the clothes she was arrested in the entire time she was detained at Broadview.”
Detainees do not receive hot meals and there are no hired food preparation staff at the facility, according to the lawsuit. Instead, they receive two to three cold sandwiches a day without regard for medical needs.
One attorney reported that her 70-year old diabetic client, who also has high cholesterol and blood pressure, was offered sandwiches for every meal, a harmful diet for someone with their medical problems, according to the lawsuit.
Another man’s religious restrictions weren’t respected and officers told him to “take it or leave it,” leading him to go about four days without eating, the lawsuit said.
A mother who was arrested at a routine check-in in June reported being “confined in a holding room for four days with nearly 30 other women, including women who were nursing, pregnant, and elderly, some of whom were held for up to six days,” according to the lawsuit.
“(Detainee) Chao Zhou had no opportunity to bathe or shower at Broadview, and the only shower fixture he saw had a sign on it that read ‘out of order,’” the lawsuit said. “The room stank of body odor.”
Others reported unsanitary conditions. In one alleged incident, a man defecated in his pants, which were placed in the garbage and allowed to remain there all night where it stank up the room.
One inmate became ill – “suffering from numbness in her lower body, an inability to feel her legs, and vomiting” – but was not seen by a doctor and ICE refused to take her to a medical facility, according to the lawsuit. The detainee also saw one man who “appeared to have suffered a heart attack” but officers “laughed at the man and made light of his medical condition,” the lawsuit said.
Another man reported attempting to alert officers to a detainee who was not feeling well but being sworn at by officers who did nothing. They did remove the man once he began foaming at the mouth, according to the lawsuit.
Outside the protest zone in Broadview, it’s not unusual for family members of detainees to bring medications for their loved ones. Attorney Louise Carhart reported that her client required medication for high blood pressure but didn’t receive it from ICE, even though his family brought the prescription to the detention center, according to the lawsuit. Attorney Shelby Vcelka reported similar neglect for a pre-diabetic client.
Detainee Rosalio Pelayo Salgado “reported that agents directed racial slurs at detainees and only gave them food and water for what they felt was good behavior,” the lawsuit said.
Rebolledo Altamirano said officers responded to his requests by saying he was “not supposed to be here.”
The lawsuit also alleges repeated refusal by agents to allow detainees to speak with immigration attorneys. One officer allowed Willian Giménez González to call his wife using his cellphone but when the officer heard his attorney’s voice on the call, he then “reached for the phone and hung up the call himself,” according to the lawsuit.
ICE uses the coercive conditions to trick detainees into waiving their rights and signing forms authorizing their deportation, the complaint alleges.
“Officers have told detainees that they are required to sign forms and that there is no need or right to speak with a lawyer,” the lawsuit said.
The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the MacArthur Justice Center and the Chicago office of Eimer Stahl.
Outside of the detention center, the building has become a focal point for opposition to tactics by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Protesters have gathered there regularly, at times clashing with police and federal agents.
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