A Spanish-language immersion daycare in Chicago’s North Side was thrust into chaos on Wednesday when federal immigration agents raided the facility and detained a teacher in front of children, in a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
Witnesses said the agents entered Rayito de Sol daycare center around mid-morning, frightening staff, parents, and children.
“The children were crying, the parents were crying,” recalled Tara Goodarzi, a lawyer who was dropping off her 3-year-old child when three armed agents entered the building.
Footage broadcast by local station WGN-TV showed two men, one wearing a balaclava and both in vests labeled “Police”, dragging a woman from the daycare’s brightly painted entrance as she screamed.
The woman, identified by parents as Diana Santillana, a teacher originally from Medellín, Colombia, could be heard shouting in Spanish, “I have papers.”
Parents described Santillana as a beloved caregiver. “On Monday, my daughter walked for the first time for her, and she couldn’t wait to tell me,” said parent Laura Tober.
U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) condemned the raid, calling it “a shocking display of unnecessary force in front of infants and toddlers.” The school had previously informed parents that all its staff were legally authorized to work in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers followed a Colombian woman and a man into the daycare after they fled a “targeted traffic stop.”
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Reuters that the agents were pursuing the pair when they entered the facility.
The daycare operation is part of a broader federal campaign that has swept across Chicago since September, resulting in more than 3,000 arrests, including several U.S. citizens and residents without criminal records.
Last week, federal agents also raided a retirement community in Evanston, a northern suburb of Chicago. Witnesses reported heavily armed men in camouflage pursuing landscapers outside the Westminster Place senior living complex.
Retired teacher Don Rogan, 89, compared the tense scene to the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, saying it made him feel, “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”
A sign for the Rayito De Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center, where federal agents conducted an immigration raid that ended in a teacher being detained, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska
Civil rights groups have decried what they call an alarming increase in militarized immigration enforcement, noting recent incidents in Los Angeles where Border Patrol agents detained a U.S. citizen father in a Home Depot parking lot and temporarily took his toddler away in the vehicle.
As images of frightened children and masked agents circulate online, outrage has continued to build in Chicago and beyond.
Local leaders and immigrant rights advocates are calling for an investigation into the raids and a review of federal enforcement practices in sensitive community spaces like schools and elder care facilities.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
