What’s the role of local police in feds’ mass deportations?
If pledges by incoming President Donald Trump and his border czar Tom Homan hold true, the Chicago area will be ground zero for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Given that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement often partners with police agencies, what will that mean for local authorities?
It’s “a common question we’ve answered plenty of times — a state law, the TRUST Act, prohibits local law enforcement from assisting ICE,” Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain explained.
Likewise, “under both current Cook County ordinance and state law, the sheriff’s office is limited in its ability to perform federal duties,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s spokesman Matt Walberg said.
Enacted in 2017, the TRUST Act states a “law enforcement agency or official may not participate, support, or assist in any capacity with an immigration agent’s enforcement operations,” according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office.
It also prohibits police from transferring a person into ICE custody, and restricts access to databases and equipment.
There are a few exceptions, notably when federal criminal warrants are involved.
In addition, the Way Forward Act, approved in 2021, “amended two existing state laws to add additional requirements and protections for immigrant communities,” Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley said.
At a December event hosted by the Northwest Side GOP Club, Homan promised “we're going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois.
“Jan. 21, you're going to look for a lot of ICE agents in your city looking for criminals and gang members,” Homan said. “Count on it. It will happen.”
Meanwhile, thousands of deportations have occurred in the Midwest under President Joe Biden’s tenure. A total of 12,281 removals took place between 2021 and 2024 in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin, federal records show.
ICE has a center in Broadview and detention facilities in Dodge County, Wisconsin, and Clay County, Indiana.
Immigrant advocates predict the new administration will reach beyond removing criminals to indiscriminate raids at workplaces that sweep up working parents and break up families.
“You could see a raid at a church, you could see a raid at a school,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
“It’s going to be disruptive, it’s going to look really bad and it’s going to scare a lot of people, which seems to be the point.”
However, ICE has just over 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel stretched over 400 offices in the U.S., according to the agency.
“Will they pull them from Minnesota or Pennsylvania or Ohio to flood into Chicago?” Tsao wondered. “Who knows, but what they will not have is the cooperation of local police or state authorities.”
In the city of Chicago alone, ICIRR estimates there are about a quarter-million undocumented individuals.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of unknowns for Chicago-area police.
Cook County “is monitoring ongoing discussions about the issue of mass deportations,” Walberg noted.
And officials in Aurora, a city with a large Latino community, said they would hold off on statements until more details are released.