CHICAGO — A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview to proceed as a class action, authorizing two former detainees to represent potentially hundreds of current and future immigration arrestees processed at the facility.

The complaint, filed in October, accused Department of Homeland Security officials of cramming people into dirty holding cells and not providing enough food and water, among other problems, as they sought to boost immigration arrests during the Operation Midway Blitz enforcement operation. It also claims that officials blocked attorney access at the site and coerced people into signing voluntary deportation forms.

It was filed on behalf of Pablo Moreno Gonzalez and Felipe Agustin Zamacona, who were detained there for several days in October. The two men sought to represent a class of detainees, but the class-action status needed approval from a judge.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman on Monday handed the win to the plaintiffs, even though the government argued that detainees had differing experiences there, given that some were only held for a few hours.

But Gettleman found that the plaintiffs overcame that hurdle, while also meeting requirements around numbers of potential class members.

“Plaintiffs state that, according to ICE data, ICE detained 5,202 individuals at Broadview between January 1, 2025, and July 28, 2025,” Gettleman’s order said. “These figures are from the period prior to the announcement of ‘Operation Midway Blitz,’ which caused a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.”

The class is likely more than 1,000 people, the judge found.

The class certification came days after a federal magistrate judge and a cadre of attorneys became some of the only outsiders in recent months to tour the facility, which is now under a temporary restraining order that requires the government to improve conditions there.

After a full-day hearing earlier this month during which detainees described overcrowded cells and scant food, Gettleman found that conditions at the facility — which was not built to house people overnight — did not “pass constitutional muster.”

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