ICE arrests student at Elgin Community College
Federal immigration authorities arrested a student at Elgin Community College Thursday morning, the college announced.
The student was arrested in a parking lot on the college’s main campus.
ECC officials said the college does not participate in immigration enforcement and does not voluntarily share information about students’ immigration status.
School officials said they could not provide any details about the student due to federal student privacy laws.
State Sen. Cristina Castro of Elgin condemned the actions of the federal agents in a written statement.
“What we witnessed at Elgin Community College today — where a student was followed on campus and taken by masked federal agents as they were entering a building for class — is disturbing,” Castro said. “Every student deserves safety and dignity on campus.”
The arrest on the ECC campus was just one of many reports of immigration arrests continuing throughout the suburbs this week.
The group Elgin Area Rapid Response posted on social media that it had confirmed ICE sightings Thursday in Streamwood, including one person being taken into custody at a Walmart store.
A message has been left with the media offices for ICE and DHS requesting information about who was detained and on what grounds.
Immigration activists who have been on patrol looking for ICE agents reported activity also in Addison and elsewhere in Elgin, including a stop near the Gail Borden Public Library.
On Tuesday, federal agents arrested several men at a house in the 900 block of Chippewa Drive in Elgin.
One of them has been charged in U.S. District Court with the crime of illegal entry into the United States after having previously been removed. Carlos Augusto Gonzalez-Leon had been removed from the country in June and October 2013 and was convicted of illegal entry, according to an affidavit attached to the complaint.
The affidavit also states that agents had watched the Chippewa Drive home on Sept. 10 and followed Gonzalez-Leon from it to a gasoline station on Sept. 12. It says they obtained a driver’s license photo of Gonzalez-Leon.
Court records also state he was convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery.
Gonzalez-Leon is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.