Updated: Rep. Gutierrez Handcuffed During Civil Disobedience At Chicago ICE Detention HQ

By Stephen Gossett in News on Mar 13, 2017 7:43PM

Rep. Luis Gutierrez at ICE Chicago center, via Twitter

Update, 5:30 p.m.:
Rep. Gutierrez posted on Twitter at around 4:30 p.m. that the group had ended their sit-in. "They were scared to arrest us because they know our cause is just," he wrote.

ICE spokesperson Gail Montenegro told Chicagoist in a statement:

"Federal Protective Service officers were called by [Enforcement and Removal Operations] to the scene because the individuals would not leave the ERO office. FPS provided three separate verbal warnings and after each warning FPS provided the individuals several minutes to comply. 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."

Original:
Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez was handcuffed by police when he and a group of activists refused to leave Chicago headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a meeting with a top regional official left the group unsatisfied.

"I was arrested, cuffed then cuffs were cut off," Gutierrez wrote on Twitter. "Waiting for further word on if/when we will be arrested."

Giutierrez met with Acting Regional ICE Director Glenn Trivline at ICE Headquarters in Chicago on Monday morning. He was joined by more than 20 immigration advocates, lawyers, church officials and others to voice concerns about the agency's actions under President Donald Trump, according to release from Gutierrez's communications director, Douglas Rivlin. Unhappy with the results of their meeting, the representative and seven of his group stayed, risking arrest, to press their demands.

Gutierrez Tweeted around noon that he and the group had been warned that they could be arrested if they didn't leave the ICE headquarters office. Shortly after 1 p.m., he said he was arrested and handcuffed.

Gutierrez was demanding that ICE turn around their decisions to deport some immigrants who have been in the country for extended lengths of time, according to Rivlin. The Congressman pressed Trivline to reverse a decision to deport Francisca Lino, a 50-year-old mother of six who lives outside of Chicago.

Gutierrez has been working for years with Lino as she met annually with ICE to keep any potential deportation deferred, but she was told by the agency at a meeting last week that she would be deported in July, according to CNN.

An ICE spokesperson told Chicagoist that the agency plans to issue a statement in the near future. We will update this post as necessary.