Legal advocates call for ban on ICE arrests without warrants at Cook County courthouses

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Legal advocates want ICE to stop making arrests outside Cook County courthouses.

They said it's hurting families, especially in domestic violence situations.

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Legal advocates spoke Wednesday morning sharing what they called chilling impacts of ICE arrests near Cook County Courthouses since Operation Midway Blitz began.

The Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender and the MacArthur Justice Center are petitioning the Chief Judge of Cook County Timothy Evans to prohibit arrests in and around courthouses without a warrant.

This includes public entryways, driveways, sidewalks, parking areas, and close transportation points.

Social and legal services organizations submitted the petition after many of their clients, they say, have expressed immense fear over ICE activity at courthouses.

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It's prevented them from attending court for things, ranging from traffic tickets to seeking a civil order of protection.

"People are not coming to court to serve as witnesses," Alexa Van Brunt, director of the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, said. "People with criminal cases are coming to court as they're required to do by law and then they're being arrested there. Survivors are abandoning orders of protection and not pursuing court cases in the domestic violence courthouse that were in front of today. They are being forced to choose between their own safety and being arrested by ICE and ripped apart from their families."

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ABC7 has reached out to the Circuit Court of Cook County for a response, asking if the chief judge would consider their petition.