Earlier this month, a chilling video of a Chicago daycare teacher being detained by ICE agents on the North Side went insanely viral. After which, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, released a statement that justified the arrest.
The clip that went viral earlier this year featured a woman being dragged out of a Chicago daycare by ICE. “I have papers,” the woman was heard shouting in Spanish in the video.
ICE isn’t going after the worst of the worst. This morning, they took a preschool teacher without a warrant IN FRONT OF CHILDREN in my district.#ice #chicago pic.twitter.com/1fhz7mYWWt
— Mike Quigley (@RepMikeQuigley) November 5, 2025
Per a news release from Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, the daycare teacher, Diana Santillana Galeano, was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in Clay County, Indiana, on Wednesday night.
An excerpt from a statement released by Santillana Galeano’s lawyers read, “I am so grateful to everyone who has advocated on my behalf, and on behalf of the countless others who have experienced similar trauma over recent months in the Chicago area.”
The daycare teacher further added in her statement, “I love our community and the children I teach, and I can’t wait to see them again.”
Meanwhile, Attorney Charlie Wysong, who represents Santillana Galeano alongside Naiara Testai at Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd, said, “We are thrilled that Ms. Santillana was released and has been able to return home to Chicago, where she belongs.”
The statement further read, “We will continue to pursue her immigration claims to stay in the United States. We are grateful to her community for the outpouring of support over these difficult days, and ask that her privacy be respected while she rests and recovers from this ordeal.”
On Wednesday, federal Judge Jeremy C. Daniel had ordered the administration to provide a bond hearing for the daycare teacher.
Erin Horetski, who happens to be a parent of one of the children Santillana Galeano teaches at the day care, told ABC News that she “burst into tears” upon hearing the news of the release.
“She’s thinking first about the kids, about all of us, even after everything she has been through. It’s moments like this when you’re reminded that people like Diana are the heart of this community. And even in the darkest circumstances, her instinct is to send love outward,” ABC News quoted Horetski as saying.
Returning to the ICE detention video, it prompted a response from McLaughlin. Reacting to a new piece on X, she wrote, “ICE law enforcement did NOT target a Daycare. Describing the woman in the video as a “female illegal alien,” she added, “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 the male driver refused to pull the vehicle over.”
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
Tricia Laughlin claimed in her post that “the vehicle is registered in her name, though she claims that she didn’t know the man who was driving her car and just picked him up from a bus stop.”
The long statement posted by ICE’s Tricia McLaughlin was signed off with these words: “Facts, including criminality and information on the male assailant, are forthcoming, and we will update the public with more information as soon as it becomes available.”
