Broadview detainees during Operation Midway Blitz were self-deporting at alarming rates, analysis finds

In just a few months, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview has transformed from an immigration holding center that rarely booked more than 10 people a day to a de facto detention center processing dozens of detainees during almost all hours of the day.

People held there have described a litany of inhumane conditions: overcrowded and unsanitary holding cells; not enough food and water; and freezing conditions at night.

They were also signing a form to voluntarily leave the country — to self-deport — at alarmingly high rates, according to a WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times analysis of recently released federal data. Legal experts said, in many cases, detainees at Broadview were coerced into signing paperwork before even speaking to a lawyer.

“They’re agreeing to voluntary departure, but the voluntary part is not accurate,” said Samuel Cole, chief immigration litigation counsel at ACLU Illinois. “They’re not knowingly and truly voluntarily agreeing to give up the rights to fight their case.”

Cole said some detainees sign the voluntary departure form to escape difficult conditions in Broadview and don’t understand what legal options are available to them.

A WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis of ICE detention data made available by the Deportation Data Project through mid-October finds the number and rate of self-deportations among detainees booked into Broadview appears to have soared during the first five and a half weeks of Operation Midway Blitz.

From Sept. 8 through Oct. 15, at least 154 people who were initially booked into Broadview have self-deported, more than nearly every other ICE detention facility in the nation during that time.

That’s about 36% of all detainees booked into Broadview during that period who were no longer in ICE detention as of Oct. 15, faster than the 11% self-deportation rate during Trump’s second term before the immigration blitz began and much faster than a rate of 6% during the last year of the Biden administration.

The self-deportation rate among those booked into Broadview during the first five and a half weeks of the Chicago-area immigration enforcement campaign was also faster than it was nationwide. Among all detainees initially booked into any ICE facility from Sep. 8 to Oct. 15, the rate of self-deportations was about 19%, nearly half of what it was for those initially detained at Broadview.

WBEZ and the Sun-Times defined individuals as self-deportees if the data indicated they had left ICE detention, had a date they departed the country and had “3-Voluntary Departure Confirmed” as their case status. The analysis focused on detainees who were initially booked into the Broadview facility, which appears by name as “Broadview Service Staging” in the data.

Questions about DHS provided data

Data released this month was a result of a lawsuit won by the Deportation Data Project and offers the first detailed data about those detained at Broadview during the first five and a half weeks of the feds' Chicago-area immigration enforcement blitz. ICE collects data on every person it arrests, detains and deports, but the agency stopped regularly publishing metrics in January.

Still, some advocates are also concerned about the accuracy of data published by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for ICE.

“Some data on the number of people who were detained in Broadview just doesn't match, for example, how many sandwiches were ordered,” said Cole with the ACLU. “There are significant differences.”

Why are self-deportations up?

Cole, who served as a federal immigration judge for nearly 10 years before formally stepping down this fall, said the use of voluntary departure has significantly shifted under the Trump administration.

Before, an immigration judge would determine if a person was “removeable,” and then offer the option of voluntary departure. Now, people are getting arrested and almost immediately “coerced” into signing voluntary departure paperwork, Cole said.

People are presented with forms before even talking to a lawyer and often in a language they don’t understand, Cole said. And these could be people who have valid ways to stay in the country but do not know it.

They’re told their options are to sign the papers and leave or wait in detention, potentially for weeks, until a judge can hear their case, according to Cole.

“The end result is people feel that they’re being forced to take voluntary departure without having an ability to talk to a lawyer, without having their case presented to an immigration judge,” Cole said.

By design, the conditions inside Broadview have also forced some to quickly self-deport, according to Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office.

“The administration’s deportation machine was built with cruel intentions and complete disregard of humanity,” said Van Brunt in a written statement to WBEZ and the Sun-Times.

“By subjecting detainees to intolerable conditions and by using tactics of coercion and misrepresentation, people are self-deporting instead of being held in ICE facilities. It’s clear that this administration is more interested in meeting its arbitrary, self-imposed deportation quotas instead of giving detainees an opportunity to make their case in U.S. courts,” wrote Van Brunt.

DHS did not respond to a request to clarify the data. However, a department spokesperson strongly denied that there are “subprime conditions” or barriers to legal counsel for detainees at Broadview.

"All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, water, and have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in an email to WBEZ. "No one is denied access to proper medical care. There is a privacy wall around the toilet for detainees."

Last week, DHS also announced a $3,000 stipend and a paid one-way plane ticket for people who chose to self-deport through a government app before the end of the year.

“We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return,” McLaughlin wrote.

Detainees held at Broadview increased sharply during the blitz

During the first five and a half weeks of Operation Midway Blitz, 1,854 people were booked into Broadview, more than almost every other facility in the country. Only hold rooms in Dallas and Montgomery, Ala., took in more detainees during that time.

Broadview was never designed to serve as a detention center. The processing center, which contains four holding rooms, was intended to hold people picked up by immigration authorities for no more than 12 hours.

In late June, ICE quietly expanded the maximum time people could be held in processing centers like Broadview to 72 hours, or three days.

But a Sun-Times and WBEZ investigation found officials were often holding immigrants at Broadview beyond the 72-hour mark.

The MacArthur Justice Center and Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration in October, alleging Broadview was a “black box in which to disappear people from the U.S. justice and immigration systems.”

Former detainees testified that 100 people were crammed into a holding room at one time. They also said they were given no hot meals or places to sleep. One former detainee broke down explaining how he’d have to wake people up to go to the bathroom at night because they were sleeping beside the toilet.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued a temporary restraining order requiring ICE to provide people bedding, “sufficient space to sleep," adequate hygiene supplies and three full meals with water. Gettleman also ordered ICE to ensure detainees had access to lawyers and a phone.

A WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis shows the number of people held at Broadview at 5 a.m. each day, based on detainee book-in and book-out times, increased sharply after Operation Midway Blitz began in September, and exceeded 100 people on more than a dozen days.

Under the Biden administration, people detained at Broadview were typically sent to detention facilities in the Midwest. In 2024, the last full calendar year of the Biden administration, more than 90% of people detained at Broadview were sent to the Clay County Justice Center in Brazil, Ind., or the Dodge County Jail in Juneau, Wis., according to a WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis of federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.

In a written statement to WBEZ and the Sun-Times, a DHS spokesperson said the agency makes facility determinations based on bed space to ensure detainees’ “presence for immigration proceedings or removal from the United States.”

But the facilities to which detainees are sent often are far from where they were arrested and many are likely outside of the court jurisdiction where their cases are being heard, advocates said. The analysis indicates recent arrestees who began their ICE detention at Broadview were sent to facilities all over the country, more than 57 facilities in 14 different states. “[It’s] undoubtedly because of how many people are detained right now,” Cole said. “They’re constantly battling crowding at facilities, and they’re moving people around because of it.”