Federal Immigration Agents Make At Least Three Arrests In Waukegan As DHS Returns To Lake County

Federal immigration agents were spotted making at least three arrests in Waukegan on Wednesday morning as Department of Homeland Security agents returned to Lake County after months away.

The first arrest occurred around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Belvidere Road and Powell Avenue in Waukegan. The second arrest happened around 11:15 a.m. at Uline, 2105 South Lakeside Drive in Waukegan, and involved a man being detained and taken away in a black SUV with no markings.

Federal agents were also spotted in the area of Catrachos Restaurant, 330 South Green Bay Road in Waukegan. The third arrest occurred around 10:30 a.m. in the area of Catrachos Restaurant.

Lake and McHenry County Scanner was told that the arrests were immigration-related and at least one of the detainees was immediately transported to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview.

Last month, federal agents were spotted in Lake Bluff making a possible immigration arrest, according to a local organization, a rare occurrence months after Operation Midway Blitz ended. The arrest occurred in the 500 block of Moffet Road, near Center Avenue.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said its Lake County Rapid Response Team reported an apparent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abduction in Lake Bluff around 11:30 a.m. on April 7. At least four federal agents were present and two of them had masks.

Lake Bluff Chief of Police Matthew Smizinski told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that his department received a report of an individual taken into custody in Lake Bluff by agents from the Department of Homeland Security. Lake Bluff Police officers were not present at the time. The agents had not communicated with them the reason for taking the individual into custody.

DHS has a multitude of agencies under its umbrella, including ICE and Homeland Security Investigations. While ICE focuses on immigration matters, HSI investigates a variety of federal crimes such as child exploitation, narcotics smuggling, cybercrime and financial crime.

DHS previously said there were several thousand arrests during Operation Midway Blitz, part of the Trump administration aggressive immigration crackdown, in the Chicago area last year. It started in September and wound down in November.

Uline is a distributor of shipping, industrial and packaging materials to businesses throughout North America. The company has two warehouses in Waukegan that are across the street from each other on Lakeside Drive. It is unclear whether the man arrested at the Uline warehouse was an employee of the business or not.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights reminded the public that they have the right to film police activity, the right to remain silent, the right to speak to an attorney, and the right to refuse to sign anything.

A video reviewed by Lake and McHenry County Scanner captured the encounter in Lake Bluff, which showed a man being arrested by agents. The man could be heard telling them he does not speak English as they asked him if he had any weapons on him. One of the agents could be heard referring to the man paperwork.