Judge denies Trump admin.'s request to pause release of over 400 arrested in local immigration ops

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A federal judge has denied the Trump administration's request to pause a ruling requiring the release of more than 400 people who have been arrested in the Chicago area, including during operation "Midway Blitz."

Those people were arrested without warrants. The judge says that may violate a previous consent decree requiring warrants for certain arrests.

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The ruling requires those people be put on electronic monitoring after paying a bond by Friday.

Jilver Lopez is on that list of hundreds of detainees. His wife, Marvella Severiano, told ABC7 he owns a local fence contracting company in Waukegan.

Federal agents arrested Lopez on the morning of Oct. 6 near West and Washington in Waukegan while on his way to work, Severiano said.

"They are asking every single night, 'Where is dad?'" Severiano said.

As a mother struggles to wipe her children's tears each night as they beg for their father, the judge's ruling could see her household whole again.

"They cry, but I had to tell them he's working. They don't know. They don't understand what's going on. But I try to do my routine like normal. But at the end of the day, it's hard," Severiano said.

Severiano said Lopez, a 34-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, came to the United States in 2013.

"They were supposed to be working that day. It was a Monday, and then they just took him," Severiano said. "They never asked. They just took him. They broke the window from the car."

After spending more than a month in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Oklahoma, Lopez is now one of more than 400 detainees a judge ordered to be released, after paying bond, as soon as Friday, pending an appeal.

While the Trump administration's request was denied by a judge, attorneys on the case say the White House could still appeal.

ABC7 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment but did not immediately hear back. In previous court filings, the agency argued that Congress stripped federal courts of their authority to grant parole to large groups of immigrants in ICE custody.