Category World News

Two immigrants detained in Chicago, Illinois, have filed a class-action lawsuit against senior DHS employees, alleging they received unfair treatment and denied legal counsel.

The US rights watchdog, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), released the lawsuit’s (PDF) PDF on Friday.

Since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown earlier this year, it highlights the worsening conditions at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview.

According to Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office and lead counsel on the lawsuit, “everyone has the right to access counsel and not be subject to horrific and inhumane conditions.”

“Community members are being abducted off the streets, locked up in hold cells, denied access to basic necessities, medical care, and legal rights, and forced to renounce them.”

The defendants, Felipe Agustin Zamacona and Pablo Moreno Gonzalez, have been living in the United States for more than 30 years as immigrants. Both are currently being held inside the Broadview facility.

Senior Trump officials, including ICE Director Todd Lyons and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, are named defendants in their lawsuit.

The most recent complaint alleges abuse and neglect in immigration facilities. In August, a similar class-action lawsuit was brought against the Trump administration, highlighting the detention facility in New York City’s 26 Federal Plaza.

The Broadview facility, a two-story office building that serves as ICE’s “primary processing facility” in the Chicago area, is the subject of Friday’s complaint, which zooms in on the complaint.

However, the two immigrants’ attorneys contend that the facility’s capacity to house them outweighs its own.

Nearly 5, 202 people were detained at Broadview between January and July of this year, according to the lawsuit’s ICE data. At any given time, the facility has at least 200 people inside.

Since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz on September 8, the numbers have increased. Midway Blitz, which Noem and the Department of Homeland Security spearheaded, was intended to increase immigration arrests in Chicago.

According to the class action, that push has put strain on the Broadview facility. It states that while Broadview was intended to be a “holding facility” for short-term detention, it is now being used for “warehousing people” for “days on end.”

According to the lawsuit, ICE officers allegedly held eight women for at least a day in an isolation room intended for singles.

“Broadview’s overcrowding is so extreme that people are forced to stand in cramped conditions due to the increased number of immigration arrests during Operation Midway Blitz.” Detainees are frequently unable to lie down on the floor.

Additionally, it includes cockroach and centipede infestations, overflowing toilets, and rooms with bodily fluid on the walls.

One anonymous woman is quoted as saying in the lawsuit, “We told the guards that the place was at full capacity, but they kept bringing people inside.” No one treats their pets like that, so they treated us like animals, or worse than animals.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that detainees have been denied access to clean, safe, and adequate medical care.

The complaint claims that the conversations took place in a central location where federal officers were able to listen in, despite the fact that some detainees have been given the option to call or text their families for a brief while.

According to the lawsuit, some detainees have been denied access to outside communication completely, and access to religious institutions has been restricted for both lawyers and religious leaders.

Federal representatives are also prohibited from entering immigration facilities, according to the lawsuit, which includes members of Congress who are tasked with overseeing them.

“An attorney’s access is not a privilege.” Nate Eimer, a partner at the law firm Eimer Stahl and co-counsel in the lawsuit, said in a statement that this is a right.

“We can debate immigration policy, but it is not about denying people legal rights and keeping them inhumanely and unlawfully detained.”

The Trump administration has consistently refuted allegations of ICE facility abuse.

However, as abuse reports increase, Operation Midway Blitz has been closely watched since its launch.

Advocates accuse the aggressive immigration operation, which is frequently carried out by armed, masked agents, of demonstrating a “pattern of extreme brutality.”

When she received a text message that altered everything, Soumaya Hamdi was planning the family trip she would soon be taking with her husband. “Is it true that Sami is being abducted”? a friend contacted.

She called her husband, British-Tunisian journalist Sami Hamdi, earlier that day to check in on him while he was on a speaking engagement in Israel’s Gaza war. When he didn’t answer, Soumaya had assumed he was at a speaking engagement.

Instead, he had been detained by US immigration authorities, news that came as “a complete shock”, she told Al Jazeera.

She continued, “I don’t believe anyone ever wants to read that text message.”

October 26 was Sunday. Sami had been stopped at San Francisco International Airport. His visa was suspended by US authorities two days prior following a campaign by anti-Muslim and pro-Israel social media influencers.

His lawyers filed urgent petitions against his detention and his wife, British parliamentarians, and UK civil society organizations, all calling for the government to take action following his arrest 35-year-old critic of Israel’s genocide against Gaza.

His case is the latest in what Muslim advocacy groups describe as a campaign to silence pro-Palestinian voices in the US through immigration enforcement.

“Bundled into a black van,” the phrase.

Since the US war on Gaza first started in October 2023, Hamdi’s speech tour was just his most recent across the country. Since then, pro-Palestinians and American Muslims have gained more followers for his message of continuing support for the Palestinian people.

On Saturday evening, he addressed the annual gala of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil right advocacy group, in Sacramento and was due to speak at another CAIR event in Florida the next day.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers approached him as he passed through the domestic terminal at the airport in San Francisco on Sunday morning.

According to Soumaya, “They took him to a big black van,” quoting what her husband later said when she reached him. “He asked them, and this must have been the second or third time, he said, ‘ I need to be able to tell someone that I’ve been taken by ICE. ‘ They responded, “OK, you got one text message. “

Before officers took his phone, Hamdi managed to leave a brief message to CAIR. When Soumaya later called, an ICE officer answered and hung up on her.

She claimed that the officer “hung me up” before turning the phone off.

Hamdi finally managed to call his wife for 30 seconds from the Californian airport’s Golden State Annex, which is located about five to six hours away, around midnight.

“He sounded really under pressure”, Soumaya recalled.

Days later, she claimed, authorities interrogated him without his lawyers present and transferred him to a different facility for processing before returning him.

Since his detention, she has spoken with him twice.

The couple have three children, including a 10-month-old baby. Soumaya said, “The kids can’t reach him because they can’t.” “Sami is a family man,” he says.

Legal challenge

A federal habeas corpus petition was filed on Tuesday by CAIR’s California chapter, which called for the government to justify Hamdi’s detention as well as an urgent temporary restraining order to stop the move.

The filings aim to prevent Hamdi from being moved to a far-off place, according to CAIR, which could ensnare him from his friends and lawyers.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Hamdi “cheered on” the October 7 Hamas-led attacks, while the spokesperson for the DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said, “Those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country”.

Hamdi said, “Don’t pity them [the Palestinians], they don’t want your pity, celebrate their victory,” in an edited clip shared by MEMRI, a pro-Israel organization that claims to be an extremism monitor, to support his detention.

Hamdi clarified his remarks a week later and on numerous occasions thereafter. “What Muslims are celebrating is not war, they’re celebrating the revival of a cause – a just cause”, Hamdi told The Thinking Muslim podcast a week after October 7. In Hamdi’s own words, “Racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, genocide, and war crimes need no justifications for humanity to recognize them and stand steadfast against them” have his family remarked.

Soumaya criticized the accusations made against her husband as “outrageous” and “smear campaigns that targeted his support for Palestinian rights.”

“The reason why these allegations have been made about Sami is because he’s become too effective of a speaker”, said Soumaya. He claims that the American government should not send billions to help Israel when American citizens require housing and healthcare. This is not to say that he has been criticizing the United States or a foreign government, and that is unfair.

Sami’s father, Mohamed El-Hachmi Hamdi, wrote an open letter to Vice President JD Vance, saying that his son should be encouraged, not stymied, and prohibited from entering America.

Zahra Billoo, executive director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area office, which assembled Hamdi’s legal defence, told Al Jazeera the challenge aims to protect Hamdi’s constitutional rights.

No charges have been brought against Sami, she said, referring to far-right activists who claimed credit for his detention, despite what Laura Loomer, Amy Mekelberg, and various government accounts have been tweeting.

Billoo compared Hamdi’s case to those of other foreign pro-Palestine advocates detained by ICE, including Badar Khan Suri, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Mahmoud Khalil.

The Trump administration has invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law being broadly interpreted to allow the government to target foreign nationals whose speech it deems harmful to US foreign policy.

Hassan Ahmad, an immigration lawyer who represents Sami and has handled similar cases like Suri’s, claimed this shows “a broad crackdown on Palestinian advocacy through immigration law.”

He claimed that there is “distinct but frequently overlap between anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia, and we’ve seen that more since October.” This is part of the larger problem of de jure Islamophobia in the US justice system”.

Billoo claimed that “this is using immigration to spread structural anti-Palestinian racism.”

Following the onset of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, which “increased to levels we hadn’t seen before,” Billoo continued, CAIR was concerned about the rise in Islamophobia.

According to CAIR’s latest civil rights report, the organisation received a record 8, 658 complaints in 2024, the highest since it began compiling data in 1996.

The report attributed the rise to what it called “the US-backed genocide,” which “drove a wave of Islamophobia in the United States,” with complaints spanning hate crimes, education, law enforcement encounters, and employment discrimination.

The new report from the US human rights organization Common Dreams, Solidarity as a Crime, highlights the “nationwide campaign to silence solidarity” with Palestinians across the country, citing censorship, arrests, campus crackdowns, and deportations aimed at pro-Palestinian advocacy.

‘ Wholly inadequate ‘ UK response

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) “is in touch with his family and the local authorities” as it stated to Al Jazeera.

However, Soumaya called the response “wholly inadequate.” She said US authorities are “blocking” FCDO officials from receiving information about why Hamdi’s visa was revoked.

She said, “We’re talking about a British citizen who has already been given the right to enter the US.” The FCDO ought to acknowledge that this is “absolutely alarming.”

Five UK members of parliament, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, issued a statement last week calling on the government to secure consular access and demand Hamdi’s safe return.

He was also requested by the National Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists. There is no proof that a journalist has committed a terrorist offence, according to Seamus Dooley, assistant general secretary of the NUJ, and he should be released.

The Muslim Council of Britain urged the government to take “urgent diplomatic action”, saying, “Press freedom cannot be selective and we urge the British Government to come to the defence of its citizens being detained in this manner”.

Billoo emphasized that there are risks that go beyond just one person. We are all forced to wonder: Are we safe if the US government treats a prominent political analyst, journalist, and British citizen in this manner. What can we say”?

His wife claims that the family has been devastated by the arrest. When he travels, Simi misses the kids. He misses all of his family”, Soumaya said. His parents worry a lot about his well-being, too, and his mom and dad are.

Israel has accused the country of escalating its airstrikes, the most recent of which resulted in the death of a motorcycle rider in southern Lebanon, under the leadership of the Lebanese president Joseph Aoun.

Israel has continued nearly daily airstrikes in five areas of southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire that was established in November 2024, repeatedly violating the truce. Hezbollah is claimed by Israel, but civilians have also been killed.

After American President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire in Gaza, Aoun had demanded negotiations with Israel in the middle of October.

Lebanon is prepared to engage in negotiations to end the Israeli occupation, but any such negotiations require mutual apprehension, which is not the case, Aoun said on Friday.

Israel “is responding to this option by intensifying tensions and carrying out more attacks against Lebanon,” he said in a meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.

An Israeli drone was shot at a man riding a motorcycle in Kunin, Lebanon’s official news agency (NNA). One person was reported to have been killed and another to have been hurt, according to the ministry of public health.

A Hezbollah maintenance officer, according to the Israeli military, was “eliminated” while attempting to re-establish the organization’s southern Lebanon infrastructure sites.

A second attack on Friday targeted a building in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, according to the NNA, adding that a missile struck the building’s roof.

According to the statement, the explosion sounded loudly, causing “heightened tension and panic among residents.” There were no reported injuries.

Defending “Israeli aggression”

The Israeli military carried out the strikes in the Lebanese border village of Blida on Friday, one day after Ibrahim Salameh was fatally shot in an overnight raid by the military.

Aoun directed the army to repel these incursions on Thursday, “in defense of Lebanese territory and the safety of citizens.”

He said, “True patriotism entails freedom, independence, and sovereignty.” According to their role, “everyone in Lebanon has a responsibility to confront occupation.”

In contrast to the Hezbollah-led armed group, the Lebanese forces have typically remained silent about the conflict with Israel. However, Aoun, a former Lebanese army commander, appears to have come to an end to his patience with the Israeli-forced status quo.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem demanded on the Lebanese government to “achieve national sovereignty by expelling the Israeli occupation” in an address on Friday.

Qassem urged the government to create a strategy to support the army in order to combat “aggression” by Israel.

Following the start of Israel’s genocidal war in October 2023, Hezbollah first started firing across borders at Israel, sparking a more than a year-long conflict that culminated in two months of open combat before the ceasefire was reached last year.

Israel has continued to launch airstrikes in Lebanon, killing dozens of people, including civilians, first responders, and journalists, and has increased the number of strikes in recent days.

According to a lebanese health ministry release, at least 25 people were killed in Israeli attacks in October, including one Syrian, according to a death toll.

Since the ceasefire ended on April 1, 111 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, according to Jeremy Laurence, a UN human rights commission spokesman.

Foreign Minister of Lebanon Youssef Raggi pleaded with his visiting German counterpart on Friday to “help put pressure on Israel to stop its attacks.”

The NNA quoted Raggi as saying, “Only a diplomatic solution, not a military one, can guarantee stability and calm in the south,” not a military solution.

He continued, adding that “the Lebanese government is putting all of its weapons under its control gradually.”

After being struck by Hurricane Melissa, which came ashore as a Category 5 storm, residents of Jamaica are frantically searching for supplies and sorting through the mess of wreckage. The storm that ravaged Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba caused at least 50 fatalities.

According to a report from the United Nations agency, the number of Israeli settler attacks and damage to olive harvests in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since 2020.

More than 4, 000 olive trees and saplings were vandalized, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday, according to a report from the organization on Friday.

In the town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, Israelis from illegal settlements reportedly set two Palestinian vehicles on fire, according to Al Jazeera correspondents on Friday.

After expelling residents in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers took possession of Palestinian farmers’ olives. Area B of the West Bank, which does not require Palestinians to coordinate with the Israeli army, is designated as a closed military zone despite the Oslo Accords’ terms for it.

A closed military zone order is a temporary, non-transferable measure that allows the army to enter a specific area. Palestinian land has been declared “state land” or “military zone” by Israel after it was seized from its owners.

As part of repeated Israeli government efforts to seize Palestinian land and forcefully evict residents, the Israeli military has been removing olive trees, an important cultural symbol for Palestine, across the occupied West Bank for decades.

After settlers arrived on the scene on Tuesday, Israeli soldiers used tear gas to disperse Palestinians who were picking their olives in the village of Turmus Aya, near Ramallah.

These actions go against army orders that require soldiers to protect olive harvesters. A military commander must not close locations in a way that would prevent Palestinian residents from obtaining their agricultural lands, according to Israel’s High Court of Justice ruling in 2006.

More than 3, 000 trees and saplings have been vandalized, according to OCHA, and at least 112 Palestinians have been injured since early October.

The UN agency documented 49 Israeli-occupied Palestinian attacks between October 14 and October 20. Palestinians in 25 villages and towns were the victims of the attacks, which occurred during the olive harvest season, which officially began on October 9.

Consolidating the annexation

According to information from the Israeli NGO Peace Now, settler violence has been pervasive in the occupied West Bank, with 757 attacks only recorded in the first half of 2025. In comparison to the same time last year, this is a 13% increase.

The International Court of Justice requested in September 2025 that the Israeli occupation be ended, but things haven’t improved.

A bill imposing Israeli rule over the occupied West Bank was approved by Israel’s parliament last week, which would amount to an annexation of Palestinian territory.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will then hear it for further discussion.

The vote came a month after Donald Trump declared that he would not allow Israel to annex Palestinian territory.

As stated in numerous UN resolutions, an annexation of the occupied West Bank would effectively eliminate the possibility of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Trump administration has vehemently opposed to allowing Israel to annex the occupied territory. Trump vowed to oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, and US Vice President JD Vance said it would not happen while Trump was in Israel last week. As he left Israel, Vance said, “If it was a political stunt, it is very stupid one, and I personally take some insults to it.”

Despite blatantly promoting its Gaza ceasefire efforts, the US hasn’t done anything to stop Israel’s heavy assault and crackdown on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Olive farming in Gaza has been destroyed.

The destruction caused by the war has now robbed Palestinian farmers of their livelihoods and destroyed most olive presses, which were once destroyed annually in the West Bank and Gaza.

As he looked after a poor crop, Mohammed Oweida, a Palestinian who fled Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera.

He claimed that Israel’s bulldozers had caused the enclave’s olive trees to dry up or perish due to the country’s severe lack of water resources.

Owner of the Nasser Odeh Olive Press Group, Nasser Odeh, claimed that his facilities, which were used to transport olive oil from small Palestinian farms to the Gulf, had been “completely destroyed.”

He lamented that they used to produce between 15 and 20 tons per year and that they were recognized as among the largest producers in the Middle East and adhered to ISO standards.

This year’s harvest is the third farmers have lost to war, according to Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili, who is based in the Deir el-Balah enclave.

Since the start of the controversial elections on Wednesday, deadly protests have been persisted in Tanzania. Important opposition figures were prohibited from running in key elections. As violence spread to a border town in Kenya, there are reportedly several fatalities.