Amid Raids, Cook County Renews ICE-linked Contract

Four years after first being warned that a contract risked exposing immigrant data to ICE, Cook County approved another renewal—this time with advocates commissioners voicing frustration that stronger safeguards are still missing.

Photography: Paul Goyette

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A Tragic Homecoming

After nearly two decades in Chicago, Silverio Villegas González returned to Michoacán in a coffin. His death at the hands of federal agents left two families divided by borders, shattered with grief, and with a lot of unanswered questions.

Photography: César Cabrera

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We Want Them Back: Protest and State Violence at Broadview ICE Facility

Through images and testimony, this essay traces how protest and state power collide outside Broadview’s ICE facility—a site of weekly deportations and enduring resistance. [South Side Weekly, September 2025]

Photography: Paul Goyette

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Trump’s ICE Crackdown Hits Home

A month after ICE’s “Midway Blitz” swept through Chicago, this story remains a portrait of how federal enforcement fractures everyday life—tracing one man’s death, another’s disappearance, and a city still reckoning with the return of mass raids.

Photography: Paul Goyette

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Cook County Sheriff ‘Data Loophole’ Lets ICE Access Immigrant Info

This investigation examines how a clause in Cook County’s contract with a victim-notification system lets ICE-access jail data, turning a public safety tool into a digital pipeline for immigrant surveillance. [South Side Weekly, August 2025]

Art: Shane Tolentino

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Silent Battles

Olga Jaramillo

This investigative series examines how trauma lingers for immigrants who escaped war and violence and how Chicago’s fractured mental health system leaves many to heal alone. [MindSite News/palabra, October 2024].

Silent Battles won the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism from the Nonprofit News Awards.

Photography: Olga Jaramillo

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