Senator Tammy Duckworth Demands ICE To Stop Using Hines VA Hospital Parking Lot In Letter To Secretary

CBS Chicago

September 17, 2025 / 5:00 AM CDT

U.S. Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth has penned a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, opposing the use of Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital property as staging for immigration enforcement agents.

Duckworth says the hospital has been ordered to "surrender" parking spots for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to use as a staging area, amid the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz" immigration crackdown in the Chicago area. According to a spokesperson for Duckworth, ICE is using about a dozen spaces.

Writing to Collins, Duckworth says the hospital's parking lot already poses challenges to veterans going there for medical care, even without parts of it being taken over by federal agents. Duckworth herself has been a patient at Hines; she is a double amputee who lost both her legs in combat while serving in the Army in Iraq.

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