In early June 2025, 24-year-old Valentina Galvis and her 7-month-old son, Naythan — a U.S. citizen — were taken into custody by federal agents at Chicago’s U.S. Immigration Court. Instead of being held at a licensed detention facility, they were confined for five days in a hotel room at the Sonesta Chicago O’Hare Airport Rosemont.

From the third floor, Galvis could see travelers and flight crews moving freely. But inside her room, the phone had been removed, leaving her with no way to call for help or speak to the outside world. Private guards contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stood watch around the clock. She had no idea when she or her infant son would be released.

This was not a normal hotel stay — it was an unregulated, makeshift detention center. The use of hotels to hold immigrants, especially children, bypasses the protections and oversight that licensed facilities are required to provide. It strips people of their rights and leaves them vulnerable to mistreatment, all while hiding the detention process from public view.

The fact that a U.S. citizen baby could be locked in a guarded room without access to communication is a serious violation of basic human rights. Detaining families in private, unlicensed locations without transparency or accountability is unacceptable, and it undermines trust in the immigration system.

The federal government must end this practice immediately. Families and children should never be detained in unregulated hotel rooms, away from legal representation, proper care, and public oversight. State and local leaders in Illinois must take action to ensure no hotel in our state can be turned into a hidden detention site. Congress must also investigate how and why these spaces are being used to hold people, including children, in secrecy.

Justice means ensuring that every person, regardless of immigration status, is treated with dignity, has access to due process, and is protected from harm. Chicago cannot be a city where human rights are violated behind the closed doors of a hotel room.

Sign this petition to demand an immediate end to the secret detention of immigrants and children in Chicago hotels and to hold those responsible fully accountable.

[Photo Credit: Sebastián Hidalgo / Injustice Watch]