CHICAGO (WLS) — Attorneys for the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) have argued in court that federal agents working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated the law when they detained a family of four this past weekend in front of the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park.

The arrest took place on Sunday when U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, along with tens of masked, armed agents dressed in camouflage were seen patrolling the streets of downtown Chicago, in a show of force aimed at advancing President Trump’s massive deportation agenda.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

The local effort has been codenamed “Operation Midway Blitz.”

According to a Tuesday court filing by attorneys with the NIJC, agents arrested two parents and their two young children, ages three and eight, “without warrants or any flight risk determinations.”

“The family simply wanted to enjoy the warm Sunday afternoon in Millennium Park at their daughter’s insistence,” the filing states. “Now, DHS has already transferred [one parent] to detention in Texas, and [the other parent] and children are detained in a room at O’Hare airport.”

A video posted on Instagram by the account Arab Chicago, which was included as an exhibit in the court filing, shows the family of four marched out of Millennium Park, escorted by federal agents.

“Based on available video, the DHS officers appear to rely on the parents’ young daughter to translate for them,” the filing states. “With Mr. Bovino in charge of immigration enforcement operations in Chicago, Defendants are taking an equally aggressive, cavalier and unlawful approach to their enforcement here.”

Attorneys with the NIJC have argued ICE agents in this case and many more are violating a 2022 settlement agreement or consent decree known as the “Castañon Nava” settlement.

According to that agreement, ICE agreed to certain conditions for arresting someone in the Chicago area of responsibility without a warrant, including pre-determining whether there is probable cause to believe the person is in the US illegally, and whether they are also a flight risk; two requirements that immigrant advocates say have been flouted since the start of the second Trump administration.

SEE ALSO | Chicago federal intervention: Tracking surge in immigration enforcement operations | Live updates

The Chicago area of responsibility consists of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas.

The I-Team was in the Northern District of Illinois federal courthouse this past July as plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice argued their case in front of the Honorable Jeffery Cummings, who said based on the evidence submitted to the court, “Many things [are] troubling me about these situations.”

“We don’t know the magnitude of this problem,” Judge Cummings said during that July hearing. “It’s impossible to tell.”

Among the allegations made in court, the NIJC found agents at the ICE Academy were trained and instructed to carry blank I-200 DHS arrest warrant forms for filling out on the spot of an enforcement action, with a supervisor’s approval, in order to avoid the court-ordered “warrantless” requirements.

Lawyers for the Justice Department argued in cases of collateral arrests, where agents did not initially have a warrant for an individual, warrants were eventually obtained and in some cases, it may be burdensome to assess flight risk on the spot.

The Department of Homeland Security has yet to respond to the I-Team’s request for comment on the Millennium Park enforcement action.

The government has previously maintained that all of the arrests were lawful and did not violate the settlement agreement.

Cummings has yet to rule on whether ICE had violated the terms of the Castañon Nava settlement.

SEE ALSO | 4 detained by federal agents at Bronzeville shelter, 37 arrested at South Shore apartment building

A status hearing for the Castañon Nava case was scheduled for this Friday, but has since been canceled due to the federal government shutdown.

In a Wednesday posting on the court’s docket, Cummings said he “will issue a written ruling in the coming days to address plaintiffs’ motion to enforce the [Castañon Nava] settlement agreement.”