A Venezuelan migrant who has been arrested 16 times since arriving in Chicago in October 2023 is now in the custody of ICE, according to documents.
In February, following his 13th arrest, we reported that a Cook County court warned Josue Vargas Rodriguez that he could face deportation because he pleaded guilty to attempting to rob a lady in Streeterville. Rodriguez was miraculously released from detention following that court appearance, and he managed to be arrested three more times before the feds eventually apprehended him, documents show.
Rodriguez, also known as Santos Vargas, Santiago Bargas Rodriguez, Santiago Jose Vargas Rodriguez, and Ramon Vargas, is currently detained at the Clay County Justice Center in Indiana.
Last November, Chicago officers arrested Rodriguez after a 43-year-old lady intervened when she saw him use a rock to try to break the lock on her electric bike in the 400 block of North City Front Place in Streeterville.
According to a Chicago police complaint, when she attempted to retrieve her bike, Rodriguez, 20, swung the rock, smacked her, and battled with her. A witness intervened to disarm and detain Rodriguez until police arrived.
Rodriguez was on pretrial release for three shoplifting charges at the time of the robbery attempt. The first judge who saw him about the robbery allegations stated that he “continues to commit crimes against citizens in Chicago.”
On February 6, he pled guilty to attempted robbery in the case, and Judge Shelley Sutker-Dermer sentenced him to two years probation, according to court documents. She also sentenced him to six months in jail, which would be offset by the 112 days he had already served in jail since his arrest in Streeterville.
Prosecutors dropped the three shoplifting allegations against Rodriguez. They had already dropped the majority of his prior criminal cases, largely retail thefts, despite the fact that he failed to appear in court for some of them.
According to someone who was present at the February 6 hearing, Sutker-Dermer took a minute to inform Rodriguez that he could be deported as a result of his robbery conviction.
Rodriguez submitted his plea just a week after President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which “mandates the federal detention of illegal immigrants who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer, or any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.”
Remarkably, CPD records show he was arrested again on February 27, barely three weeks after the judge sentenced him to probation and cautioned him about the possibility of deportation. This time, he was charged with misdemeanor assault on the first block of East Lake in the Loop.
He was released from jail and arrested again on April 4 in the 200 block of North Wells on a felony narcotics charge, according to CPD records.
He was put back on the streets, and two days later, on April 7, Chicago authorities caught him for turnstile jumping at a CTA station in the Loop.
Unless Rodriguez is granted a reprieve, he is expected to be deported, bringing his brief but eventful tenure in Chicago to an end.
