Michael Loria

Quite a Black Friday afternoon from President Trump: Trying to strike down former President Joe Biden's executive orders; pardoning the former Honduran president convicted of drug trafficking; and wading in on Honduran elections, while telling Maduro to stay out.

"When people withdraw themselves from the gears of the machine, that’s power, and service members need to know they have power to withdraw their consent," Aaron Hughes, a veteran, told @usatoday.com.

Here's a look at vets calling for troops to claim conscientious objection.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s Accountability Commission still ramping up as federal immigration surge starts to subside More than three weeks after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker created the commission, there is no apparent way for the public to report misconduct by federal immigration agents.

More than three weeks after Pritzker drew national attention for creating an “accountability commission,” aimed at Trump’s ICE raids, there is no apparent way for public to report allegations of misconduct yet. Story by @petrellareports.bsky.social www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/p...

Charlotte braces for surge of immigration agents as Trump's crackdown widens Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, are bracing for a surge of federal agents as President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration widens.

Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, are bracing for a surge of federal agents as President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration widens.

Bovino on Fox News: "I'll tell you what's gonna happen. We're gonna go even harder on the streets. If he releases those 650, we're gonna apprehend 1,650 on the streets of Chicago."

Carl Sandburg’s ‘Chicago’ poem finds fresh relevance in a city occupied by ICE Known for praising the city with “big shoulders,” the beloved 1914 composition recently was recited in a ruling addressing federal immigration agents’ use of force. Literary scholars say they were “as...

“I was both astounded and mesmerized."

Carl Sandburg’s ‘Chicago’ poem finds fresh relevance in a city occupied by ICE.

From @ericathompson.bsky.social via @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

City settlement deal demands silence from whistleblowers fired by Chicago Treasurer Conyears-Ervin In an extraordinary departure from usual practices at City Hall, the city’s $100,000 settlement agreement with whistleblowers who were fired by Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin prohibits them…

Lori Lightfoot endorsing Melissa Conyears-Ervin is a good time to remind folks that Lightfoot fought hard to hide allegations of misconduct against Conyears-Ervin from the taxpayers. A real stain on her good government self-promotion
www.chicagotribune.com/2023/10/11/c...

After ICE detained her husband, Albany Park mom juggles care for 3 kids, including son with autism, newborn Ingrid Guanume tells her children their dad will be home soon. But with her husband in federal immigration custody awaiting a court hearing later this month, she doesn't know if she believes what she'...

Very proud of the work my colleagues are doing at the Sun-Times. Read this heartbreaking piece by Mary Norkol and Anthony Vasquez. The only change I would have made is to the headline, which I would have made: 'Daddy isn't coming.'

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

This is the teacher federal agents grabbed yesterday at Rayito De Sol daycare in front of children. Attorneys for Diana Santillana have filed a petition in federal court to have her freed from ICE custody.

Story from yesterday on testimony heard in the case, including Trump’s top blitz enforcer saying the use of force has been “more than exemplary” and two women stopped at gun point by federal agents.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Back at the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago today where a judge is expected to issue a ruling in a case over federal agents use of force as they carry out the White House’s Midway Blitz crackdown. @usatoday.com

Vcelka is telling a few stories about clients. Among them the story of a nursing mother who was detained in Wisconsin, brought to Broadview and was unable to reached until she was in Mexico.

Calls with clients, if she reaches them while they're in Broadview, last about five minutes, Vcelka says. "It’s very difficult for me to hear my client, there’s a lot of background voices," she says, "and you can tell it's not on a recorded line."

Attorney Shelby Vcelka says, "I have had extremely limited communications with my clients while they're in Broadview, if I happen to speak with them it’s through happenstance, if their family members happens to be in my office when they call."

A major issue in the case is whether detainees are able to access their attorneys. On the stand now is a lawyer who represents detainees being held at the ICE facility in the suburbs.

When she reached an attorney in the U.S., she learned she had actually agreed to leave the country for 10 years.

Back in Honduras, she contacted who she thought was a lawyer who asked for money to secure her a "pardon." After giving the so-called attorney hundreds of dollars, she realized it was a scam.

Ultimately she signed papers on the belief that they wouldn't let her out of the ICE facility otherwise. The officer told her that the papers meant she would have to stay out of the U.S. for five years.

She says she wanted to speak with a lawyer because "I didn't want to come here... I didn't want to leave my children behind."

The woman is also beginning to cry as she talks about her deportation. In the ICE facility she says she asked to speak with an attorney was told, "what for" and there was nothing she could do.

Meals, she says, consisted of small frozen Subway sandwiches, often with just peppers and lettuce, accompanied by a small bottle of water. People asking for more water were told to wait for the next meal.

On asking facility officials for cleaning products, she says, "We would ask them to give us something — having been there for so many days we just couldn't put up with the smell anymore — but they said they didn't have anything."

"They didn’t give us anything that had to do with cleaning, absolutely nothing," she says.

Her and other detainees once asked for a broom to sweep but were told no. At one point they used trash bags to unclog the toilet. There were no showers, she says.

She says she spent five days at the ICE facility outside Chicago. Inside the cell, she says, "there was no cleaning, they never cleaned the bathroom."

Next up is a witness testifying over video from Honduras. She says she had been living in the U.S. for five years before immigration agents picked her up. Her two kids are still in the U.S.

Zamacona speaks of similar conditions with overcrowding and cleanliness. "They never mopped, they never swept, there was garbage everywhere," he says.

"I wasn't going to sign anything," he says, "my life is here."

Zamacona says that at one point he says he told people at the facility that he wanted to go before a judge and he was presented with papers to sign referred to as "court papers." But Zamacona says he saw they were removal papers and refused to sign.

Next up Felipe Agustin Zamacona, a 47-year-old born in Mexico who has been in Chicago for 31 years and attended high school in Chicago.