Diana Santillana Galeano, the daycare teacher detained by ICE agents last week, has been released from immigration detention, her attorneys said.
“We are delighted that Ms. Santillana has been freed and able to return home to Chicago where she belongs,” attorneys Charlie Wysong and Naiara Testai said in a statement. “We will continue with his immigration claims to remain in the United States. We thank his community for the outpouring of support during these difficult days and ask that his privacy be respected as he rests and recovers from this ordeal.”
His lawyers say he will meet with parents from the Rayito de Sol community on Friday.
Two parents hug outside the Rayito De Sol Spanish Immersion Daycare and Preschool, where federal agents carried out an immigration raid that ended with the arrest of a teacher, in Chicago, Illinois, on November 5, 2025.
Jim Vondruska/Reuters
“I am very grateful to everyone who has advocated on my behalf and on behalf of countless others who have experienced similar trauma in recent months in the Chicago area,” Santillana Galeano said in a statement. “I love our community and the children I teach, and I can’t wait to see them again.”
Local officials said Santillana Galeano was arrested at the Rayito de Sol Spanish immersion daycare and one of them claimed she was “kidnapped in front of her students.” The Department of Homeland Security maintained that she fled to the daycare after an attempted traffic stop and lied about her identity. They also accused her of entering the country illegally in 2023 and claimed she “allegedly” paid a smuggler to bring her children to the United States recently.
Last week, a federal judge temporarily barred the Trump administration from removing Santillana Galeano from the United States and transferring her to any federal jurisdictions outside of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, court documents show.
Erin Horetski, mother of one of the children Santillana Galeano teaches at daycare, tells ABC News that she “burst into tears” when she heard the news of his release. He said “Ms. Diana’s” statement says a lot about the kind of person she is.
“She thinks of the children first, of all of us, even after everything she’s been through. It’s times like this when you remember that people like Diana are the heart of this community, and even in the darkest of circumstances, her instinct is to send love outward,” Horetski told ABC News.
Horetski launched a GoFundMe campaign for Santillana Galeano that has raised nearly $160,000.
