Chicago Day Laborer, in ICE Detention, Says He’s Facing Retaliation Because Supporters Are Protesting His Abduction

“This sets a really dangerous precedent where we are seeing that if people speak up about their rights, they could be targeted for that,” says Miguel Alvelo Rivera, executive director of the Latino Union of Chicago, where Giménez González is a member. ​“What feels dangerous about all of this is the silencing of folks who advocate for their community.”

The lawsuit says the workers ​“have endured physical violence at the hands of off-duty Chicago Police Department officers as they have been targeted based on their race, ethnicity, and national origin and thrown to the ground, aggressively handcuffed, and beaten by officers in displays of excessive force.”

According to the lawsuit from 2024, on October 23, 2023, when Giménez González sought work outside of a Home Depot, he was pushed to the ground, repeatedly slapped, then instructed to sign a paper written in English that he ​“did not understand.” That paper turned out to be his agreement that he had been trespassing. The city of Chicago went on to formally charge him with trespassing, though eventually stopped pursuing prosecution. But even though the trespassing charge was dropped, it was later cited as one justification for his detention by federal agents on September 12, 2025, Herrera says.

On that day, he was abducted outside of a barbershop in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, a predominantly Latino area. According to Herrera, his lawyer, ​“When he was apprehended, he was asked to confirm his full name. Nothing else about this individual’s background would indicate that he is particularly of interest.”

Giménez González’s supporters with the Latino Union of Chicago and the Raise the Floor Alliance organized a press conference on September 13, outside of the Broadview facility, expressing concern that he had been targeted for advocating for his rights. ​“We do have a reason to believe that this is some sort of retaliation,” according to Samantha Royal Ledesma, from the Latino Union of Chicago, who talked to me at the press conference. ​“That’s one of the main reasons we’re here. We just want him to be out and safe, with us and with his family.” Elected officials were among those who gathered, including Chicago Alder Rossanna Rodriguez, and Reps. Chuy Garcia and Delia Ramirez.

But then, Herrera says that the morning after the press conference, ​“I got a call from his wife letting me know that he was in Michigan.” Giménez González had been moved ​“without any indication,” he says, preventing a court in Illinois from having jurisdiction over his habeas corpus petition, aimed at challenging an unlawful detention. 

The transfer was unusual, says Herrera, because it is common for people to languish for long stretches of time at the Broadview facility. Herrera was left scrambling to find a legal team in Michigan to partner with, and Giménez González’s wife is now hours away from him. Herrera does not want to name the facility where Giménez González is being held, concerned about retaliation.

Federal agents’ abduction of Giménez González rattled his community. He was a known, staunch proponent of day laborers’ rights, and his detention was followed by a steady onslaught of abductions targeting day laborers, some of them while seeking work at the same Home Depot where he alleges he was abused. 

Rapid responders and worker center organizers don’t know exactly how many day laborers have been abducted from the Chicago area since the Trump administration initiated ​“Operation Midway Blitz on September 8, but they describe unrelenting ICE kidnappings outside of Home Depots and other hardware stores, as well as repeated assaults on rapid responders. Other workers are being targeted too: street vendors, domestic workers, and service workers.

Communities across Chicago and the suburbs are mobilizing to defend these workers. In hard-hit neighborhoods, rapid response groups mobilize by foot, bike, and car to alert communities when ICE is present, blowing whistles to signal danger. 

The Latino Union of Chicago has an Adopt-a-Hiring-Corner effort at more than a dozen hiring sites throughout Chicago and nearby suburbs, coupled with a formal proposal to the city to formally establish safe hiring sites. One volunteer with the program told me, ​“The more that we are able to be a presence with them and stand with them, the more that they know there will be people who will see them and care for them and recognize what is going on.”

Alvelo Rivera from the Latino Union of Chicago says that whatever retaliation Giménez González is facing right now, he is hopeful that community support will be more helpful in the long run. ​“We have mobilized every resource at our disposal to ensure that Willian can safely return,” he says. 

“Unfortunately, many people are taken without their community even knowing. The fact that people are keeping a close eye is having — I’m hoping — a protective factor.”

This article is a joint publication of In These Times and Workday Magazine, a non-profit newsroom devoted to holding the powerful accountable through the perspective of workers.