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Federal immigration agents pulled a teacher from inside a North Center daycare Wednesday morning, causing a chaotic scene and “traumatizing” workers, parents and children, neighbors and officials said.
At least three agents showed up about 7 a.m. Wednesday at Rayito de Sol daycare, 2550 W. Addison St., where they detained a worker who cares for infants, witnesses said. A video shows them taking the worker out of the daycare while holding her arms behind her and at her sides, with screaming and shouting audible.
The agents had followed the woman as she drove to her job and chased her inside the daycare and preschool, Ald. Matt Martin (47th) told Block Club after the incident. The teacher got into the daycare’s vestibule, but the agents “tore her away,” Martin said. The agents, who were armed but did not draw their weapons, pushed other people who were looking to intervene, he said.
Agents also went into the daycare and preschool center to inquire about other staff, disputing a claim from a Homeland Security spokesperson that the officers did not “target” a daycare, elected officials said at a press conference.
Both incidents happened in front of parents and children, said Martin, citing video of the incident. Other workers became afraid to come in, and the center closed for the day, parents said.
“It’s some of the most chilling video footage I have ever seen, certainly in my time in office,” Martin said. “We are, of course, demanding that she be released immediately.”
The teacher who was taken works with infants at Rayito, and she is a mother, said Tara Goodarzi, a parent with a child at the center. Parents and officials said they believe the woman had permits to work in the country.
“I am horrified by what has happened here today,” Goodarzi said. “Our community has been shattered. Our families have been traumatized. The children were crying; the parents were crying.
“It’s a scene that I don’t think any of us have ever witnessed before and will ever forget.”
Children, teachers left ‘terrified,’ parents say
The immigration law enforcement operation caused a chaotic scene at the bilingual daycare and preschool, teachers and parents said.
Nathaniel Meadow, a parent at Rayito de Sol, said parents arriving during the incident left their kids in their cars “to spare them from their teachers crying.” A crowd of parents formed by the agents shouting “shame.”
Several teachers fled with a student and hid in a back of a pickup truck, “terrified of being found,” Meadow said.
“They weren’t sure what was going on. ICE, an attack on the school — they didn’t know,” Meadow said.
One Rayito teacher was working with a 3-year-old when the agents arrived, U.S. Rep Delia Ramirez said. The teacher took the young student and hid because the teacher “was afraid that she may die today,” Ramirez said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the local immigration enforcement campaigns, said agents attempted to pull over the woman while someone was driving her, but she proceeded to her place of employment. The woman who was arrested is from Colombia and does not have legal immigration status, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
“ICE law enforcement did not target a daycare,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
Despite the arrest occurring in the facility’s vestibule, security video from the incident shows the federal agents walking into other rooms throughout the daycare and preschool, according to Martin and Ramirez.
Ramirez said security footage from the center shows agents entering the building multiple times. Agents were also seen in footage questioning a worker and escorting them to their locker to “prove she has papers,” Ramirez said. Rayito has yet to release any security footage.
“They didn’t just walk in chasing one person, they went into multiple rooms asking and looking for teachers while children were present,” Ramirez said. “This is an agency that has gone rogue and it an agency that believes that as long as they can cover their face, they can get away with anything.”
The detention was “traumatizing,” said parent Abby Salat, whose son goes to the center. Salat said her husband arrived about 7:15 a.m. and said federal agents were gone by then.
“The idea of a child seeing their caretaker with whom they have a strong attachment to being taken away in distress, it’s going to impact every single child whether they saw it or heard about it,” said Salat, who works as a school psychologist.
Rayito de Sol is a Spanish immersion daycare and preschool with locations in Edgewater, Lincoln Park, Uptown and the suburbs. The Addison Street location sits across from Lane Tech High School.
Sarah Wirth said her husband was on his way to drop off their young son at the daycare when the parents were “bombarded with messages not to go.”
“Other teachers are not coming into work because they’re terrified,” Wirth said.
‘They’re Supposed To Be Going After The Worst Of The Worst’
Rayito parents, who have been communicating in group chats since the incident, believe the employee taken had legal documentation to work in the United States, Wirth said.
“These are human beings we trust to take care of our children every day,” Wirth said. ”We’re all shell-shocked.”
During a Wednesday news conference, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley said he and his colleagues are demanding the teacher be released. He said the teacher had a work permit. The congressman also said daycares, schools, shelters, churches and hospitals were considered sensitive locations and were protected from immigration enforcement under former President Joe Biden. President Donald Trump ended these protections in January.
“They can say they aren’t targeting a daycare, but that’s where they were this morning,” Quigley said. “They’re supposed to be going after the worst of the worst, if they’re now trying to tell us that what’s left of the worst of the worst is someone with papers whose educating kids at a daycare than I think everything they say comes into question.”
Parents have already organized a GoFundMe to help with the teacher’s legal fees. As of Wednesday evening, the GoFundMe had raised more than $10,000. Parents also started a Change.org petition calling for local and federal elected officials to take action and help get the teacher released.
Martin’s office is coordinating with other North Side groups to stage a rally against immigration officers targeting educators at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Northcenter Town Square, 4100 N. Damen Ave.
This story originally appeared in Block Club Chicago.
