The Department of Homeland Security claimed in court proceedings that nearly two weeks worth of surveillance footage from ICE’s Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago has been “irretrievably destroyed” and may not be able to be recovered, according to court records reviewed by 404 Media.
The filing was made as part of a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security by people being held at Broadview, which has become the site of widespread protests against ICE. The lawsuit says that people detained at the facility are being held in abhorrent, “inhumane” conditions. The complaint describes a facility where detainees are “confined at Broadview inside overcrowded holding cells containing dozens of people at a time. People are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water […] the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable […] the physical conditions are filthy, with poor sanitation, clogged toilets, and blood, human fluids, and insects in the sinks and the floor […] federal officers who patrol Broadview under Defendants’ authority are abusive and cruel. Putative class members are routinely degraded, mistreated, and humiliated by these officers.”
As part of discovery in the case, the plaintiffs’ lawyers requested surveillance footage from the facility starting from mid September, which is when ICE stepped up its mass deportation campaign in Chicago. In a status report submitted by lawyers from both the plaintiffs and the Department of Homeland Security, lawyers said that nearly two weeks of footage has been “irretrievably destroyed.”
“Defendants have agreed to produce. Video from September 28, 2025 to October 19, 2025, and also from October 31, 2025 to November, 7 2025,” the filing states. “Defendants have indicated that some video between October 19, 2025 and October 31, 2025 has been irretrievably destroyed and therefore cannot be produced on an expedited basis or at all.” Law & Crime first reported on the filing.
The filing adds that the plaintiffs, who are being represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the MacArthur Justice Center, and the Eimer Stahl law firm, hired an IT contractor to work with the government “to attempt to work through issues concerning the missing video, including whether any content is able to be retrieved.”
Surveillance footage from inside the detention center would presumably be critical in a case about the alleged abusive treatment of detainees and inhumane living conditions. The filing states that the plaintiffs' attorneys have “communicated to Defendants that they are most concerned with obtaining the available surveillance videos as quickly as possible.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media. A spokesperson for the ACLU of Illinois told 404 Media “we don’t have any insight on this. Hoping DHS can explain.”
