Federal officials clarified details surrounding a viral video that appeared to show a woman being forcibly arrested outside a Chicago daycare, saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were targeting an illegal immigrant who fled into the building during an attempted traffic stop—not conducting a raid at the childcare center.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Wednesday that ICE officers arrested 41-year-old Colombian national Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, who had previously been released at the southern border under the Biden-Harris administration in June 2023.
Officials said she fled into the vestibule of the Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center after officers attempted to stop a vehicle registered to her earlier that morning.
According to DHS, the vehicle was driven by a man who refused to comply with law enforcement commands and sped into a nearby shopping plaza. The department said both occupants exited the vehicle and ran toward the daycare.
“Law enforcement pursued the vehicle before the assailant sped into a shopping plaza where he and the female passenger fled the vehicle,” said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin.
“They ran into a daycare and attempted to barricade themselves inside the daycare, recklessly endangering the children inside. The illegal alien female was arrested inside a vestibule, not in the school.”
ICE law enforcement did NOT target a Daycare.
Officers attempted to conduct a targeted traffic stop of this female illegal alien from Colombia.
Officers attempted to pull over this vehicle, which was registered to a female illegal alien, with sirens and emergency lights, but… https://t.co/ChNhTyAOQc
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) November 5, 2025
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Video footage of the arrest shows two ICE officers restraining Santillana Galeano outside the daycare as she screamed and resisted being handcuffed.
Several daycare employees can be seen nearby, one holding a child as officers placed her into a law enforcement vehicle.
Representative Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) accused ICE of taking “a preschool teacher without a warrant in front of children,” on X.
Congressman, you are deliberately misrepresenting the facts.
ICE law enforcement did NOT target a daycare and were only at this location because the female illegal alien fled inside.
Here is the real story:
Officers attempted to conduct a targeted traffic stop of this female… https://t.co/a5BdcbhnwC
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) November 5, 2025
In a statement, DHS said Quigley’s remarks were “deliberately misrepresenting the facts” and that reports suggesting ICE targeted a school or a teacher were “inaccurate and false.”
“Work authorization does NOT confer any type of legal status to be in the U.S.,” the department said.
“The illegal alien’s work authorization was approved by the Biden administration, which exploited this loophole to help facilitate the invasion of our country.”
According to DHS officials cited by Fox News Digital, Santillana Galeano was not targeted for her employment but because she was an undocumented immigrant who had been caught and released at the border.
Authorities added that she was under investigation for allegedly encouraging her two children, ages 16 and 17, to cross the border unaccompanied last month.
Officials said she may have facilitated human smuggling by hiring individuals to transport them into the United States.
Her children were later apprehended near El Paso on October 19 and placed in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
They are now housed at a shelter for unaccompanied minors in the Chicago area known as Heartland International Children’s RC, according to DHS.
McLaughlin said Santillana Galeano initially gave false information about her identity and claimed she did not know the male driver, stating she had “picked him up from a bus stop.”
DHS confirmed that the man fled the scene, and law enforcement officials have not yet released his identity.
DHS officials emphasized that Santillana Galeano did not enter the daycare itself because the second set of vestibule doors was locked.
How do you people sleep at night after lying all day to the American people like this?
ICE law enforcement did NOT target a daycare and were only at this location because the female illegal alien fled inside.
Here is the real story:
Officers attempted to conduct a targeted… https://t.co/hA1mCa8dx2
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) November 5, 2025
ICE agents made the arrest outside the secured area and not “in front of children.”
In a statement following the arrest, DHS said, “President Trump and Secretary Noem are restoring the rule of law in the U.S. and directing ICE to target criminal illegal aliens.
More than 70% of all ICE arrests are of aliens with pending charges and convictions in the U.S.”
The investigation into the incident and the male suspect remains ongoing.
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