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

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CHICAGO (AP) — An employee of a Chicago daycare center and preschool was detained by immigration agents 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 into the parking lot right after her, Alderman Matt Martin said, citing witness accounts. The employee was detained at the entry 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 wore clothing Wednesday that read “POLICE ICE,” identifying them as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to Martin. Video circulating online showed at least one officer in a vest that said “ICE” as the woman was restrained and taken away.

“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 an online 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 on the north side of Chicago closed for the day.

Parents gathered outside the preschool 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,” she said.

Chris Widen, whose 4-month-old also is taught by the woman 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 when he saw people yelling and federal immigration officers in body armor outside the school. 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 an ICE experience at this point,” said Rayito parent Jason Wirth, who was 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.”

Immigration authorities have in recent months provoked an outcry for operating near schools, especially during the hectic hours of dropping off or picking up children.

In July, agents confronted a man in the parking lot of his child’s preschool in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, with many preschoolers looking on. In Los Angeles, agents handcuffed a disabled teen outside a high school campus, later releasing him when they discovered they had the wrong person. In Chicago, agents last month released tear gas that engulfed an elementary school playground where children had been playing.

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.

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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 show agents wore “tactical gear” not “practical gear.”

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Raza reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Moriah Balingit in Washington, D.C., contributed.