Illinoisans can now bring civil lawsuits against immigration enforcement officials whom they believe violated the federal or state constitution.
Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) signed a bill into law Tuesday that the state government characterized as protecting “immigrants from unjust federal actions.”
The bill allows Illinois residents to sue law enforcement officers who violate the federal or state constitution. It also prohibits civil arrest around state courthouses, prevents hospitals from illegally releasing protected patient health information to law enforcement, and outlines action guidelines for universities and daycares surrounding immigration statuses.
“With my signature today, we are protecting people and institutions that belong here in Illinois,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Dropping your kid off at day care, going to the doctor, or attending your classes should not be a life-altering task. Illinois — in the face of cruelty and intimidation — has chosen solidarity and support. Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, and Gregory Bovino have tried to appeal to our lesser instincts. But the best of us are standing up to the worst of them.”
Pritzker has positioned himself as a foil to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda, as Chicago has served as one of the hot spots for the administration’s tough-on-crime approach.
Pritzker has sued the administration to block its deployment of the National Guard to Chicago and has spoken out against the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get Noem’s thugs the hell out of Chicago,” Pritzker said in October. “I’m not afraid. I am not afraid, and I won’t back down.”
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reacted to the bill signing in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“He must be unfamiliar with the US Constitution,” she said. “Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution, still clearly states: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof … shall be the supreme Law of the Land.“
“By signing this law, Pritzker violated the Supremacy Clause, his oath he took as Governor to ‘support the Constitution of the United States’ — which itself falls under the oaths clause of the Constitution,” she said. “We hope the headlines, social media likes, and fundraising emails he did this for are worth it!”
McLaughlin also said in an October statement to the Washington Examiner that, while Pritzker “smears ICE and CBP officers as thugs,” to “millions of Americans—including those victimized by criminal illegal aliens—they are heroes.”
“The real thugs are the worst of the worst — including pedophiles, rapists, murderers, gang members, and armed robbers — that Pritzker allows to terrorize the people of Illinois,” McLaughlin said in October. “It’s no wonder Chicago has had the most murders of any U.S. city for 13 consecutive years. His rhetoric is directly contributing to domestic terrorists attacking our brave law enforcement. If he doesn’t knock this garbage off, one of our brave law enforcement officers is going to be killed.”
Tuesday’s bill is the latest in the series of Pritzker’s actions to defend his state against what he called “a relentless campaign of cruelty and intimidation and abuse at the hands of ICE and border patrol agents” in a press conference for the bill signing. He called the bill an “expansion of legal protections” for Illinoisans.
“Any person may bring a civil action against any person who, while conducting civil immigration enforcement, knowingly engages in conduct that violates the Illinois Constitution or the United States Constitution,” the bill text reads.
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The 35-page act will take effect immediately, according to the governor’s office.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s requests for comment on the Illinois bill.
