Daymelis Martinez, a Venezuelan mother and asylum seeker, is working hard to provide for her family after her husband, Dario Quevedo Marquez, was arrested by immigration agents at a Cook County courthouse and deported to Venezuela.

Family Struggles to Cope

Martinez is now a single parent, looking after the couple’s three children and trying to pay the family’s rent. She has fallen behind on rent and is struggling to make ends meet, despite working as a ride-share driver and planning to start making deliveries for Amazon.

The family arrived in Chicago in 2023 after crossing the Mexico-U.S. border and filing for asylum. They had dreams of opening a Venezuelan restaurant, but that dream is now on hold as Martinez tries to get back on her feet.

Courthouse Arrests Spark Concerns

Quevedo Marquez’s arrest is one of several recent cases where immigration agents have detained people at local courthouses, despite a state law and court order designed to prevent such arrests. The Illinois Court Access, Safety, and Participation Act, passed in December, outlaws civil arrests by federal agents in courthouses in the state.

The law allows someone detained by immigration agents within 1,000 feet of a local courthouse to sue the federal government and seek civil damages of at least $10,000. However, no one has attempted such a case yet, and federal agents continue to appear at and near local courthouses to make civil immigration arrests, violating the state law.

Original reporting: Block Club Chicago — read the source article.