Feds agree to extend temporary restraining order requiring improved conditions inside Broadview ICE facility
The Trump administration has agreed to extend a temporary restraining order requiring improved conditions inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview for several more months.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman in October ordered ICE to improve sanitary conditions inside the facility, and take steps to ensure detainees were given access to their lawyers, among other improvements, after determining the conditions inside were "unnecessarily cruel."
The plaintiffs who brought the class-action lawsuit have argued conditions at the Broadview facility were overcrowded and dirty and not fit for humans, and that ICE regularly denied them their right to consult with their attorneys.
Gettleman's order required ICE to provide detainees at Broadview with clean bedding and sufficient space to sleep if they are held overnight; a shower at least every other day; clean toilet facilities; three full meals per day; a bottle of water with each meal; adequate supplies of soap, toilet paper, and other hygiene products; and menstrual products and prescribed medications.
Holding cells also must be cleaned at least twice a day, and detainees must be provided free and private phone calls with their attorneys. Detainees also must be given a list of pro bono attorneys in English and Spanish upon arrival at the facility, along with interpreter services if needed. Detainees also must be listed on ICE's online detainee locator system as soon as they arrive at the Broadview facility.
That temporary restraining order is set to expire next week, when Gettleman was expected to hold a hearing on whether to issue a longer-term injunction, but last week attorneys for detainees who had sued the federal government and lawyers for the Trump administration agreed to extend the existing temporary restraining order until April 19, 2026.
However, the two sides still disagree on whether conditions inside the facility have sufficiently improved, and whether the lawsuit can proceed directly to trial in April, or whether Gettleman should first hold a preliminary injunction hearing.
In a court filing outlining the agreement to keep the temporary restraining order in place until April, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the federal government has not been handing over evidence quickly enough for them to be ready for a trial in April.
"There are many disputed facts at issue in this case requiring discovery, including whether Defendants have complied with the terms of the TRO, the extent of Defendants' practice of coercing waivers of rights, and how and whether conditions at the facility will change (once again) in the spring when the Defendants ramp up enforcement. Defendants have, to date, failed to respond to many of Plaintiffs' expedited discovery requests, including those seeking evidence about post-TRO conditions at Broadview," they wrote.
But government lawyers argued the judge should essentially consolidate the preliminary injunction hearing with a trial in April. They claimed "this case is moot" because the conditions that prompted the lawsuit no longer exist, with the number of people held in Broadview down significantly since Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and most of the agents under his command left Chicago for immigration operations in other cities.
"There have been days where no one was processed at Broadview. On other days, one or two people were processed there. On rare days where 20-30 people were processed at Broadview, they were in and out in a matter of hours," the government's attorneys wrote.
The Trump administration claimed it is already complying with all of the conditions of the temporary retraining order, so holding a preliminary injunction hearing separate from a trial would be duplicative.
"Broadview has learned a lot, is better equipped, and does not foresee having any conditions of confinement or access to counsel issues in the future," they wrote. "This suit is no longer needed to protect the class members' interests. Let's not make the lawsuit bigger than it needs to be."
However, the plaintiffs' attorneys said they have evidence that ICE is still violating some of the terms of the temporary restraining order, despite the decline in the number of people held in Broadview.
"For instance, until ordered otherwise on December 3 by Magistrate Judge McNally, Defendants were refusing class counsel access to Broadview to speak with clients," they wrote. "And any improvements undertaken in response to a court order should not be interpreted as voluntary; the material risk of conditions returning to their pre-TRO state once enforcement efforts ramp up is precisely the kind of risk courts rely on to grant a preliminary injunction."
The two sides were scheduled to hold a status hearing on the case on Thursday by phone, when Gettleman could formally extend the temporary restraining order as the two sides have agreed.
The video above is from a previous report.