Exclusive: Chicago ICE Field Director addresses Hanover Park officer's arrest, Broadview facility access

EXCLUSIVE: ICE's Chicago Field Director on Broadview facility, more

ICE's Chicago Field Director is addressing all the recent controversies, exclusively with Fox 32.

CHICAGO - The Chicago ICE Field Director spoke exclusively to FOX 32 on Friday afternoon amid ongoing tension at the Broadview processing facility and several court rulings demanding that federal agents act within the law.

What we know:

Samuel Olson is back on the job this week after leaving the Chicago ICE office for the Twin Cities earlier this summer. Interim Director Russel Hott has since moved on to Washington, D.C.

Olson said he wanted to clear the air about what he calls misperceptions surrounding ICE’s operations — starting with the detainment of a Hanover Park police officer arrested Thursday. ICE says the officer is in the country illegally, despite receiving federal work authorization earlier this year.

"He overstayed his visa for nearly a decade, so he doesn't have any lawful status in the U.S.," Olson said. "USCIS did issue him a work authorization card, but he didn't have lawful status and the U.S. immigration law is very complex, so there's different ways someone might be here illegally and apply for some type of benefit and be authorized to work during that time frame, but still have no legal status."

Exclusive interview: Chicago ICE Field Director talks Hanover Park officer's arrest, Broadview operations

Chicago ICE Field Director Samuel Olson spoke exclusively with FOX 32's Paris Schutz about the arrest of a Hanover Police officer, recent raids, Broadview and misconceptions he wants cleared up.

On the unrest at the Broadview ICE facility and why ICE will not allow observers to check the conditions, Olson said:

"Broadview is a staging and processing facility," Olson said. "We'll arrest someone in the Chicago area, we bring them to Broadview for their initial processing and from there they'll get transferred to a detention facility where we can provide the proper level of care."

"We have opened the facility in the past to let people in, but we're undertaking such a large operation now, it's probably not operationally feasible to come in there."

When asked why more than 70% of people detained do not have criminal convictions — according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse — despite vows to target "the worst of the worst," Olson said:

"The focus is the criminal alien element," Olson said. "We start with that, but we are going to encounter people with a non-criminal history. Those individuals might have a final removal order. Immigration law says when we encounter someone, we shall take that person into custody."

Olson said he did not have specific information on the case of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, who was shot and killed by federal agents last month after a traffic stop in Franklin Park. Olson also said he did not have information on a widely shared video showing ICE officers chasing and detaining an alleged 19-year-old woman in Hoffman Estates.

Olson said some of the higher-profile raids — including those in South Shore and Chicago’s East Side — were conducted by Customs and Border Protection, a separate agency under the Department of Homeland Security.

And today, a federal judge once again ordered federal agents to wear body cameras. Olson said they will comply with all federal rulings.