Southwest Side community gathers to call for release of Chicago caretaker in ICE custody
In a last-ditch effort, family and friends of a caregiver, taken into federal custody back in October, are fighting to get him released from ICE custody, claiming he was wrongfully detained.
Friends, family, and elected officials spoke out as a judge decides in two weeks whether to deport him.
Dozens of people filed into St. Pius Church in the Pilsen neighborhood on Saturday in hopes of bringing Federico Alcantar, 22, back home.
He has been in federal custody since he was detained, leaving his two younger siblings with no caretaker.
"All I can think of is how he didn't deserve this and how much he and his siblings had already endured," Mariela S.said.
His friends said Alcantar's mom died of cancer, and his dad was murdered. So the three siblings must stay together.
"He was racially profiled, forced into a traffic stop, where he was removed from his car at gunpoint," said Katherine Greenslade, lawyer and director with the Immigrant Justice Legal Clinic.
Alcantar's lawyer said federal agents detained him in a warrantless traffic stop while they were looking for someone else. She said he has no criminal record and the Department of Homeland Security is holding him because he is in the U.S. illegally."
CBS Chicago reached out to DHS to find out why Alcantar was arrested in the first place. A spokesperson for the department alleged that he rammed federal agents with his vehicle during a targeted stop for his arrest on Oct. 31.
U.S. senators and representatives were also in attendance at the St. Pius vigil on Saturday and said that all eyes will be on DHS next week.
"Now this is a critical week coming up," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois).
In the coming days, Democrats and Republicans will try to come together and fund the agency to avoid another government shutdown.
"I did not vote for ICE, but I did vote for a process, which means we will be negotiating with Republicans to try and set some standards to take off the masks, to put the video cameras in place," Durbin said.
"We will decide to shut down this government if we do not see ICE reformed," said Rep. Bill Foster (D-Illinois).
CBS News reported that the possible shutdown would not stop federal immigration enforcement agents and their duties, since they received an influx of money in the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" last year.
"It is unjust that he is in detention and not with his family. he belongs at home, and no family should be separated this way," Mariela said.
As for Alcantar's family and friends, they say their focus is on their brother and guardian.
Alcantar's final hearing to decide if he will be deported is scheduled for Feb. 19.
