![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ctc-l-little-village-migrant10b.jpg\")
A photo of Darwin Leal on his wife’s phone, Sept. 23, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\nOn Sept. 21, Darwin Leal turned 24. His family made him a cake, lit it up with candles and sang him \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d over a video call. He was almost 300 miles away, sharing a cell with dozens of people in a correctional facility in western Michigan.<\/p>\n
Just a week earlier on a Sunday, the Venezuelan immigrant had been driving in Chicago\u2019s Little Village neighborhood with his wife, 23, and two kids \u2014 a 1-year-old boy, Lennyel, and a then-3-year-old girl, Nicolles \u2014 on their way to look at a new place they were hoping to move into, when federal immigration agents stopped the car.<\/p>\n
A photo of Darwin Leal on his wife’s phone, Sept. 23, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cDarwin?\u00a0Salte del veh\u00edculo, est\u00e1s bajo arresto,\u201d an agent could be heard saying in a video filmed by the wife and later shared on social media. \u201cLeave the vehicle, you\u2019re under arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u00bfPor qu\u00e9?\u201d the couple asked in unison. \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEst\u00e1s aqu\u00ed ilegalmente,\u201d the agent replied. \u201cYou\u2019re here illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u00bfC\u00f3mo que est\u00e1 ilegalmente?\u201d his wife asked. \u201cWhat do you mean he\u2019s here illegally?\u201d<\/p>\n
While Leal didn\u2019t yet have legal status, he had obtained a work permit and he had a court date for his asylum hearing, which was recently moved from 2026 to 2027.\u00a0 Instead, agents put him in handcuffs.<\/p>\n
Like Leal, thousands of migrants across the country are going about their lives under the assumption they are exempt from arrest or deportation because of pending asylum hearings, work authorization or\u00a0Temporary Protected Status applications. But if they entered the country illegally or are without granted status, attorneys say they have no protections from immigration enforcement under a second Trump administration \u2014 even as they seek to stay in the U.S. through legal avenues. In fact, they\u2019re even being targeted.<\/p>\n
As Leal\u2019s family sought an explanation from immigration agents that day, one of the agents reached for the door handle inside the car from the driver\u2019s side window, which had been rolled down.<\/p>\n
After a short tussle over the handle, during which the couple said they wanted to call a lawyer, Leal eventually opened the door. In the video, his wife pleads with the agents in between sobs. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why they do this to us,\u201d she cried out in Spanish. Their children were in the back seat the whole time.<\/p>\n
\u201cLo trataron como delincuente. Me dejaron ah\u00ed, tirada, con los ni\u00f1os,\u201d she later told the Tribune. \u201cThey treated him like a criminal. They left me behind, alone with the kids.\u201d The Tribune is not naming her because she also fears arrest.<\/p>\n
His wife says her husband is a good man who has never been arrested. \u00a0A search of court records for Cook and collar counties did not turn up any criminal history for anyone with a matching birthday named Darwin Leal. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Emma Melton, an immigration attorney at The Resurrection Project, a community development nonprofit, said she\u2019s heard similar stories in recent months.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of those folks that were picked up that have pending (asylum) cases or have work permits or are following the steps for some form of relief, are usually just collateral arrests,\u201d she said. \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s really more of: (Federal agents) are going out and they\u2019re just trying to round people up, we think, for the numbers, for show.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is calling its escalating immigration crackdown in Chicago and its suburbs \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d with arrests reported and federal agents sighted near local schools, courthouses and workplaces. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced<\/a> that it had made 800 arrests in the area since the mission began at the beginning of September.<\/p>\n The administration is using its \u201cbroad federal authority,\u201d Melton said, to detain anyone they believe entered without inspection or doesn\u2019t have a granted status \u2014 such as permanent residency, asylum or temporary protection.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, for instance, dozens of federal immigration agents \u201cstormed and raided\u201d a homeless shelter in Chicago\u2019s Bronzeville neighborhood run by Bright Star Community Development Corp., according to a video statement<\/a> from the organization. According to local Pastor Chris Harris, the people targeted were standing outside the shelter, preparing to head to work \u2014 60% of the shelter\u2019s immigrant residents are employed.<\/p>\n Caryl West, executive director of Bright Star Community Development Corp., said less than half of the shelter\u2019s 260 residents are from the migrant community and among those, \u201ca lot of them have work permits (and) a lot of them are seeking asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou might have a work permit, but that\u2019s not status. That\u2019s just permission to work. It\u2019s not a legal status to have filed an asylum application,\u201d Melton said.<\/p>\n Still, in previous years, being involved in such a process meant she could more confidently tell her clients, \u201cYou\u2019re doing the \u2018right things.\u2019 That makes you a lower priority\u201d to be targeted.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that was true until this year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s different in this Trump administration than the first one, because during the first administration, he did release clear priorities<\/a> for the folks that he was targeting.\u201d<\/p>\n This meant U.S. resources were aimed at targeting noncitizens with any criminal offense, not just serious felonies or multiple misdemeanors; immigrants who had \u201cabused public benefits\u201d or committed fraud; and those who had been ordered to be deported but had not yet left the country.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, everyone is a priority,\u201d Melton said. \u201cAnyone that you know is here, anyone that speaks Spanish, anyone that has brown skin.\u201d<\/p>\n Last Sunday, as dozens of federal immigration agents patrolled downtown Chicago<\/a> in a show of force, Chief U.S. Border Patrol agent Greg Bovino told WBEZ<\/a> they were arresting people based partly on \u201chow they look.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018So very frightening\u2019<\/p>\n On Sept. 23, Sarah Mawhorr and three employees from her Chicago-area junk hauling company were driving on Interstate 65 near Lowell in northwest Indiana, on their way to deliver some furniture that had been in storage. She was in her van, following the truck with the men inside.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was such a beautiful day. It was such a normal day \u2014 until everything was not,\u201d she recalled to the Tribune.<\/p>\n At some point, Mawhorr pulled off the interstate to use the restroom. Once she was back on the road, trying to catch up with the truck, she received a call from her employees: One of them had been detained over his immigration status.<\/p>\n An Indiana state trooper had pulled them over to where a group of plainclothes agents, whom Mawhorr later saw carried no clear identification, waited. One of them approached the men in the truck and addressed them in Spanish.<\/p>\n As opposed to Illinois, where the TRUST Act<\/a> prohibits state and local law enforcement from assisting with immigration enforcement, in August, Indiana entered into agreements with federal authorities<\/a> to allow state police to exercise immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n According to her other two employees, Mawhorr said, the third one, Joao Barreto \u2014 a 48-year-old from Venezuela and father of two young women residing in a Chicago suburb \u2014 replied in Spanish. He came to the United States in 2022 and had been working with Mawhorr since late 2023, which is when he got a work authorization that was good through 2028. At the time, he also applied for Temporary Protected Status, which to this day has not been approved. He also applied for asylum.<\/p>\n A relative, who asked not to be named for fear of arrest, said, \u201cIt looks like they didn\u2019t do it the way the government wanted to,\u201d referring to the asylum application.<\/p>\n But Melton said it\u2019s a common misinterpretation: \u201cJust because someone is detained doesn\u2019t mean that that cancels out their asylum or really means anything about their claim. I know that that, sometimes, is confusing to clients: \u2018Oh, maybe my asylum claim isn\u2019t good, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m being targeted.\u2019 It has nothing to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know that he had work authorization. I know he had a valid driver\u2019s license. And that\u2019s all I need to know to hire him,\u201d Mawhorr said. \u201cThey took (him) because he answered in Spanish, because he couldn\u2019t speak English.\u201d<\/p>\n She said Barreto was a talented driver, cooperative, friendly to clients, and stayed sober, which is a requirement to drive a commercial vehicle.<\/p>\n By the time she got to where the truck had been pulled over, Barreto had been taken away. She said law enforcement had no reason to conduct a traffic stop in the first place \u2014 ultimately, the truck was given no citations or tickets.<\/p>\n She asked the agents why Barreto was taken.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s illegal,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has work authorization,\u201d Mawhorr said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, it does.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Homeland Security is the one who cleared him to work for five years,\u201d Mawhorr told the Tribune. \u201cNow, of course, that was the Department of Homeland Security under Biden. But we are supposed to be following rules, and you can\u2019t just switch up \u2026 the moment the administration changes.\u201d<\/p>\n She called the activity and presence of federal immigration agents in the Chicago area a performance, echoing critics who have similarly compared it to \u201ca show\u201d<\/a> and a \u201cpublic relations stunt.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so sickening. I mean, rule of law, due process \u2014 all of that is going out the window. It\u2019s so very frightening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did a run to Indiana earlier in the summer,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I did not take (Barreto) because I was worried about this happening. And then we had to do another run to Indiana, and I thought, \u2018Maybe I am too focused on this, I am imagining things. Maybe I\u2019m making this darker than it is.’\u201d<\/p>\n So she talked to him about it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Nah, no worries.\u2019 He said \u2014 in Spanish, but he said to me \u2014 \u2018No worries, we\u2019ll drive to the moon and back,’\u201d Mawhorr recalled. \u201cI feel like I put him in harm\u2019s way. I had a gut feeling that it was a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n But Barreto\u2019s relative said he felt confident and comfortable going about his daily life, and didn\u2019t think anything like this would happen. He had never been in trouble with the police, the relative said.<\/p>\n A search of court records for Cook and collar counties did not turn up any criminal history for anyone with a matching birthday named Joao Barreto.<\/p>\n Barreto was soon transferred to the same correctional facility in Michigan where Leal is being held. He has a deportation hearing set for Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was paying taxes, he was paying rent, he was making car payments, he was paying insurance,\u201d Mawhorr said. \u201cNow he\u2019s not making money, he\u2019s not paying taxes, he\u2019s not paying bills, and we are using our tax money to keep him incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n Barreto\u2019s relative said the family came from Venezuela looking for safety,\u00a0but they don\u2019t feel that anymore.<\/p>\n The 48-year-old is a fighter, family said, but he has expressed feeling overwhelmed and scared.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to say it, but I know he\u2019s depressed. He\u2019s really, really desperate. He just wants to go back to Venezuela,\u201d the relative said. \u201cIn a different time, he would say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m gonna fight this case. I\u2019m gonna do this and that.\u2019 But he told me, \u2018Oh, God, I just want to go home.’\u201d<\/p>\n A surprising test<\/p>\n While she waited for a call back from Leal on a recent weekday, his wife picked at the protective film on her phone. After a few minutes, she peeled it off. Her fingers traced cracks on its surface. It broke the day of the arrest, she said.<\/p>\n A mostly untouched plate of chicken and rice sat on the dinner table at a family friend\u2019s apartment, where Leal\u2019s wife and two children have been staying since he was detained. She grabbed a black wallet \u2014 her husband\u2019s \u2014 and took out identification cards one after another. She placed them on the table, including a real ID, an Illinois driver\u2019s license and a work permit. From one of the slots in the wallet, a blue Ventra card peeked out.<\/p>\n Standing on her tiptoes, Leal\u2019s wife reached the top of a shelf and grabbed several manila folders. One of them, a bright red color, was labeled \u201cpapeles\u201c \u2014\u00a0papers. They kept a meticulous record of every document they had been given or made to sign, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is in order,\u201d she said in a quiet voice.<\/p>\n Calling from the correctional facility, Leal told the Tribune that he had felt safe and confident in his immigration status and the fact that he followed the law. He didn\u2019t live with the anxiety of being taken and deported, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I knew this would happen, I would have left voluntarily,\u201d he said in Spanish. \u201cHere (in detention), I am wasting my time.\u201d<\/p>\n Leal\u2019s wife came to the United States four years ago with their daughter, who back then was only a few months old, crossing the southern border \u201cpor trocha,\u201d she said, referring to an irregular border crossing through unofficial paths, which are often also dangerous. Then she turned herself in to immigration officers.<\/p>\n In 2023, Leal similarly immigrated to the country. He was released on parole by immigration officials and given a court date for an asylum decision next year. For the last two years, he has been the family\u2019s sole provider while his wife cared for their young children at home. Leal also sends money to his mother and a young nephew back in Venezuela, as well as three kids from previous relationships who live in Colombia.<\/p>\n To support that many people, Leal worked a construction job from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. And, after having dinner and a short rest at home, he\u2019d go out to \u201cwork the apps,\u201d his wife said \u2014 mostly driving ride-shares and delivering food or groceries.<\/p>\n \u201cYo no me meto con nadie, yo vivo trabajando. No me he robado ni un tomate, no tengo problemas,\u201d Leal said. \u201cI don\u2019t mess with anyone; I work all day. I haven\u2019t stolen even a single tomato. I make no trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n Still unable to find an affordable immigration lawyer, Leal\u2019s wife has been trying to sell the family\u2019s car. The family is also out hundreds of dollars after a check they were going to cash got lost during his arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even leave the house now,\u201d the wife said. Her relatives have advised her not to go outside. \u201cBut I say I need to mobilize and find a job. I can\u2019t work while I\u2019m locked away.\u201d<\/p>\n As the couple talked, their daughter hoisted herself over the table\u2019s edge, trying to catch a glimpse of Leal.<\/p>\n \u201cTe amo mucho, papi,\u201d she said. \u201cI love you very much, daddy.\u201d Four days after her father\u2019s birthday, she turned 4.<\/p>\n This week, Leal got a call from his wife. After several days of feeling ill, she took a pregnancy test as they talked. It came back positive.<\/p>\n When she told the Tribune the news on Tuesday, she recounted her husband\u2019s reaction:\u00a0\u201cHe cried, because he\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Chicago Tribune\u2019s Tess Kenny, Laura Rodr\u00edguez Presa and Madeline Buckley contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sept. 21, Darwin Leal turned 24. His family made him a cake, lit it up with candles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":279391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[2330,125174,960,2398,12764,66270,5412,5410,5386,1818,6501,409,45341,277,2065],"class_list":{"0":"post-279390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-border-patrol","9":"tag-bovino","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","12":"tag-deportations","13":"tag-detained","14":"tag-dhs","15":"tag-ice","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-illinois","18":"tag-immigrants","19":"tag-immigration","20":"tag-noem","21":"tag-trump","22":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115321347003587563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CTC-L-border-patrol-chicago45_240290522.jpg\")
Federal agents near the Newberry Library in Chicago’s Gold Coast, Sept. 28, 2025, after walking through downtown as part of an immigration blitz show of force. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Joao](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ctc-l-venezuelan-migrants-01.jpg\")
Joao Barreto, a Venezuelan immigrant seeking asylum and living in a Chicago suburb, shown Sept. 21, 2024, after loading up a truck for the junk hauling company he was working for when he was detained by federal immigration agents driving near Lowell, Indiana on Sept. 23, 2025. (Provided photo)<\/p>\n![\"Mom](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ctc-l-little-village-migrant02_239930288.jpg\")
Darwin Leal’s wife holds her son Lennyel, 1, on Sept. 23, 2025, while talking to her husband by phone.(Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ctc-l-little-village-migrant09a.jpg\")
At home in Chicago, Nicolles plays with a birthday poster, Sept. 23, 2025, in advance of her fourth birthday. Days earlier, her father Darwin Leal was taken into custody by federal immigration officials. (Terrence Antonio James\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n