CHICAGO — Because the federal authorities continues to pursue its lawsuit in opposition to Chicago, Prepare dinner County and Illinois over their “sanctuary” insurance policies, native authorized teams this week filed a short arguing that sanctuary legal guidelines truly promote public security — and encourage financial development.
An amicus temporary within the case was filed Tuesday by the ACLU of Illinois and the Nationwide Immigrant Justice Heart on behalf of a number of native immigrant advocacy organizations.
The temporary cites research, native and state legal guidelines and information articles to argue that sanctuary insurance policies — which restrict cooperation between native legislation enforcement and federal immigration authorities — truly promote collaboration between undocumented communities and police, protect legislation enforcement sources for combatting crime and result in stronger economies.
The submitting comes about six weeks after the Trump Administration sued Chicago, Prepare dinner County and Illinois over a patchwork of insurance policies, together with the Illinois TRUST Act, Welcoming Metropolis Ordinance and Prepare dinner County, Sick. Ordinance 11-O73. Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling, Prepare dinner County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Prepare dinner County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart are additionally named within the swimsuit.
Filed Feb. 6, the Justice Division’s lawsuit claims these sanctuary insurance policies “intrude with and discriminate” in opposition to the federal authorities’s immigration enforcement amid the “nationwide emergency” President Donald Trump declared in January on the nation’s southern border.
It additionally argues that the Chicago, Prepare dinner County and Illinois legal guidelines “facilitate the discharge of harmful criminals into the group by directing native staff to refuse to switch such aliens to federal officers in a safe setting.” Citing the U.S. Structure’s Supremacy Clause, the lawsuit claims the sanctuary insurance policies are “invalid.”
However native officers, together with Johnson and Pritzker, have repeatedly pushed again in opposition to that narrative whereas stressing that officers do flip over offenders to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they’ve a prison warrant.
“We’re not federal brokers. So native legislation enforcement within the metropolis of Chicago, they don’t dub as federal brokers,” Johnson mentioned this month whereas testifying in entrance of a congressional committee listening to on sanctuary cities alongside the mayors of New York Metropolis, Denver and Boston.
On March 4, the state of Illinois, Prepare dinner County and the town of Chicago filed motions to dismiss the federal swimsuit, in accordance with court docket information. Tuesday’s amicus temporary additionally urges the court docket to dismiss the case whereas laying out a multi-pronged assault on the federal authorities’s claims.
That features a often used protection of sanctuary insurance policies by native politicians and advocates: that undocumented individuals or their households usually tend to report against the law or collaborate with police once they don’t should concern immigration reprisals or deportation.
A number of research have proven immigrants haven’t precipitated a rise in crime in the US. A 2016 research discovered immigrants commit fewer crimes on common than individuals born in the US.
The temporary additionally argues that native legislation enforcement companies ought to use their restricted sources to solely implement legal guidelines below their jurisdiction, fairly than spending time coordinating with federal companies.
“The Metropolis, County, and State have moderately decided that fairly than holding immigrants previous their launch dates, responding to queries, and arranging jail visits for ICE officers, legislation enforcement sources are higher expended investigating crimes and apprehending suspects, no matter their immigration or citizenship standing,” in accordance with the temporary.
And citing a 2017 report from the Heart for American Progress, a liberal assume tank, the temporary argues economies are stronger in locations the place native governments have sanctuary insurance policies. Undocumented immigrants contribute an estimated $1.5 billion in taxes yearly in Illinois, in accordance with information from the Institute on Taxation and Financial Coverage included within the submitting.
Passing and imposing sanctuary legal guidelines, in accordance with the temporary, are “sound public coverage causes supported by proof.”
In Trump’s inauguration speech in January, he vowed to deport “hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of prison aliens.” However regardless of high-profile raids in late January within the Chicago space, it’s not clear precisely what number of undocumented individuals have been arrested regionally since he took workplace.
ICE spokespeople haven’t disclosed precisely who their brokers arrested within the metropolis, what they have been arrested for or what’s occurred to them since, regardless of repeated inquiries by Block Membership and different native media.
Chicago’s Welcoming Metropolis ordinance bars Chicago cops from helping in federal immigration enforcement “solely primarily based on immigration standing,” in accordance with the Police Division. Metropolis officers additionally don’t ask individuals about their immigration standing nor do they deny metropolis companies primarily based on immigration standing.
The Illinois Belief Act doesn’t forestall native police from cooperating with federal authorities when there’s a federal prison warrant. It solely prevents native legislation enforcement from helping the federal authorities with civil immigration instances, in accordance with a state truth sheet.
Regardless of latest consideration on Chicago as a sanctuary metropolis, its insurance policies date again almost 40 years.
Chicago has been a sanctuary metropolis since 1985 when then-Mayor Harold Washington signed an government order barring metropolis companies from working with federal immigration officers, in accordance with the Tribune. It was enshrined in metropolis legislation in 2012 below former Mayor Rahm Emanuel because the Welcoming Metropolis ordinance.
In 2021, then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Metropolis Council strengthened the ordinance by eliminating loopholes that allowed police to work with immigration officers in some instances, in accordance with a metropolis truth sheet concerning the Welcoming Metropolis ordinance.
Varied makes an attempt by Metropolis Council members to amend or water down the ordinance over the previous few years haven’t superior, together with a latest proposal to permit some coordination between Chicago police and immigration authorities.
Francia García Hernández and Mick Dumke contributed.
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