Sara Tenenbaum is the Senior Digital Producer for CBS News Chicago covering breaking, local and community news in Chicago. She previously worked as a digital producer and senior digital producer for ABC7 Chicago.
A federal judge's ruling is a legal win for people wrongfully arrested in recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol sweeps.
The ruling extends a consent decree that further limits ICE's ability to arrest people without warrants or probable cause. Those arrests include Abel Orozco Ortega of west suburban Lyons, Illinois, and hundreds of other people taken off the streets by federal agents without warrants or probable cause.
The consent decree will remain in effect until at least Feb. 2, 2026.
Attorneys for the National Immigration Justice Center said ICE officials had suggested that they were no longer bound by the agreement limiting their arrest powers.
The agreement dates back to 2022. The judge ruled that ICE has violated the decree repeatedly, and improperly told its field offices over the summer that the order had been cancelled when it had not.
The NIJC said separate litigation is underway for those taken into custody in the ICE raid at the South Shore apartment building last week.
They also noted that the "hundreds" referenced in the lawsuit only reflect those who have reached out to their office for help.