A federal judge in the United States has ordered the release on bond of hundreds of undocumented migrants arrested in Chicago as part of President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown.
District Judge Jeffrey Cummings issued the directive on Wednesday, ruling that detainees who are not considered security risks be freed while awaiting the outcome of their immigration hearings.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the order affects migrants who were arrested without warrants or probable cause during immigration raids in the Chicago area known as Operation Midway Blitz.
The judge set the bond at $1,500 and directed that those released be placed under some form of supervision, including electronic ankle monitoring.
The detainees are among thousands of migrants apprehended during the operation, many of whom have already been deported or voluntarily left the country.
In a statement posted on X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) condemned the ruling, describing Judge Cummings as an “activist judge.”
“At every turn, activist judges, sanctuary politicians, and violent rioters have tried to stop our officers from removing the worst of the worst,” the DHS said.
“Now an activist judge is putting Americans’ lives at risk by ordering 615 illegal aliens released into the community.”
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which argued that the arrests violated constitutional rights.
The decision marks another setback to President Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement efforts in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city.
Trump, who has made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second-term agenda, had deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to the Democratic-run city to support law enforcement and immigration operations. However, several federal courts have blocked those deployments.
Last month, the Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn lower court rulings that halted the use of the National Guard in Chicago.
The president has successfully sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Washington, and Memphis this year, but similar deployments to Portland and Chicago remain tied up in legal disputes.
