A charter school network on the Southwest Side of Chicago informed parents that an adult was detained Wednesday morning by federal immigration officials outside a school building when dropping children off for class.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed the arrest of a 37-year-old man outside the school.
Advocates say this may be the first time since President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown started in January that ICE has detained an individual as children were arriving or leaving a Chicago school.
The Trump administration last month said it would allow agents to make arrests at schools, churches and hospitals, ending a policy in effect since 2011. Still, Chicago school leaders have pledged not to allow ICE agents inside schools except when they have a proper criminal arrest warrant.
Arrests near schools are something parents have feared, even as they have been assured their children would be safe once they are in school, said Andrea Ortiz, director of organizing for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council.
“It is really terrifying for families and traumatizing for students,” she said.
ICE says it decides on a case-by-case basis whether to conduct an immigration enforcement action at or near a school.
Acero Schools, the charter school network that informed parents about the situation, said it is providing support for those directly impacted. “We understand how stressful and upsetting this is to our school communities,” network officials wrote in a message to parents on Wednesday.
An ICE spokesman said agents had arrested Francisco Andrade-Berrera, 37, a Mexican citizen. Over the past two decades, Andrade-Berrera has been convicted of vandalism, gang loitering, reckless conduct and both selling and planning to sell cocaine, court records show. He was previously removed from the U.S. to his home country in 2005 and 2013.
Andrade-Berrera most recently pleaded guilty in 2023 to purchasing roughly five ounces of cocaine that federal prosecutors in Chicago said he planned to sell. He was sentenced to three years of supervised release and given credit for two weeks spent in custody.
In a letter to Judge Sara L. Ellis seeking leniency, Andrade-Berrera described himself as a husband and the “father of 4 beautiful kids,” explaining that he worked as a chef at Summer House in Lincoln Park and dreamed of opening his own restaurant.
“I have worked hard to support my family all these years and made sure they have a good life,” he wrote. “If I could go back in time I would without hesitation.”
His wife told the judge he’s a dedicated father, noting that she and the children “need him with us.”
“His biggest fear is going away and leaving us,” his wife said.
She couldn’t immediately be reached. Andrade-Berrera’s federal defender didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the communication to parents, Acero officials said at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, agents from ICE and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives approached an individual in a car outside of Soto High School at 5025 S. St Louis Ave. in Gage Park.
Staff from the school escorted two students from the car into school and no one was hurt, according to the communication to parents. Soto High School is on the same campus as an Acero elementary school, so it is unclear what school the children attended.
Acero Chief Culture Officer Helena Stangle said in a statement that staff followed protocols. She said Acero has a civil rights resource hub on its website and regularly shares information about “know your rights” sessions that parents can attend.
The charter school network pledged to parents that it will continue monitoring “activity to ensure the safest environment for all our students.”
Acero has seen a decline in typical attendance rates by as much as 4% since January, though Stangle said in the statement they don’t know if this is fully attributable to the Trump administration’s threats of mass deportation.
Ortiz said it is “comforting to see that school administrators have acted fast and have moved to connect families to resources and secure the safety of their families.” After the initial wave of fear right after Trump’s inauguration, she said families were starting to feel more comfortable sending their children to school.
Now, she worries this incident will “refuel those fears.” Still, Ortiz said she hopes people will understand that the community can be “more powerful than ICE.”
The “community is committed to ensuring families feel prepared and ready in this fight,” she said.
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.
