Illinois Congressman: I Was Handcuffed For Refusing To Leave Chicago ICE Headquarters

CHICAGO, IL — Congressman Luis Gutiérrez said he was handcuffed by federal law enforcement after refusing to leave Chicago's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters without answers related immigration issues.

Early Monday afternoon, Gutiérrez tweeted that he was "entering a meeting with ICE in Chicago ... to discuss deportations, #daca," referring to the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy allowing undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors to receive a two-year deportation deferment and eligibility for a work permit.

"We are staying until we get answers from ICE," Gutiérrez said in both English and Spanish, adding the hashtag, "#chiresist."

According to ICE Public Affairs Officer Gail Montenegro, "Chicago officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agreed to an informational meeting on March 13 with Congressman Luis Gutierrez and various community groups. During this meeting, ERO Chicago officials responded to the Congressman’s requests for information. However, when the Congressman sought actions and assurances that ICE officials couldn’t provide, he and other meeting attendees staged a sit-in and refused to leave the ERO office at the conclusion of the meeting."

It wasn't long before Gutiérrez said federal law enforcement told the District 4 rep and his contingent to leave or risk arrest.

Just after 1 p.m., Gutiérrez — who still refused to leave — said he was handcuffed, then had the cuffs removed and was waiting to find out if and when he'd be arrested.

Montenegro said Federal Protective Service officers were called by ERO to the scene after Gutiérrez and the others refused to leave. "FPS provided three separate verbal warnings and after each warning FPS provided the individuals several minutes to comply," she said. "When the group refused to leave, they were briefly placed in flexible plastic restraints before ICE officials relayed that they no longer wanted the individuals removed from the building. The Congressman and other individuals were placed in the restraints for approximately two minutes before the flex cuffs were removed by FPS. FPS did not cite these individuals.”

Gutiérrez has been a vocal critic of ICE campaigns that have included raids and deportation in Chicago and the suburbs.

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On Friday, he lashed out at ICE for a series of tweets he claimed were ramping up fear among undocumented immigrants.

“President Trump and his people should keep their hands off of the DREAMers, period," Gutiérrez said in a statement. "Tweeting out that every DACA recipient is vulnerable to deportation is just another way this President is trying to create fear in immigrant communities, to make families and children think that their government could come after them at any time. It is disgusting behavior on the part of the Department of Homeland Security and the White House and it needs to stop.”

Gutiérrez was referring to ICE Twitter messages including one that stated, "DACA is not a protected legal status, but active DACA recipients are typically a lower level of enforcement priority." The ICE account went on to tweet that DACA deferment "may be revoked anytime," and added that "Deferred action does not prevent DHS from executing a removal order," a remark Gutiérrez viewed as a threat.

In the end, the On Monday afternoon, Gutiérrez said law enforcement "started to arrest us earlier, but changed their minds. They know we are right."

Image via Rep. Luis Gutiérrez's office