Elgin joins communities looking to ban use of their property for ICE activities

The Elgin City Council is considering ways that it can make it clear to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that they’re not welcome on city-owned property.

Council members Tish Powell and John Steffen requested the discussion for Wednesday’s council meeting to contemplate regulating the use of certain city-owned properties for civil immigration enforcement activities.

Elgin would join a growing list of local governments, including Carpentersville, Chicago and Evanston, as well as Cook, Lake and Will counties, that don’t want properties they own or control used as staging areas, processing locations, or bases of operations for federal immigration agents.

“I think it’s important to take a stand,” Steffen said.

He said he’s heard from numerous sources that ICE agents often wait outside the council chambers — which serves as a courtroom four days a week — or in the city hall parking lot.

“If we pass this ordinance, I’m hoping we could at least make it harder, if not impossible, for them to do that,” he said.

Numerous community members spoke during public comment in support of a measure to limit where ICE could congregate. But right off the bat, council members were careful to make sure that residents knew what a potential ordinance could — and couldn’t — do.

“I know people hear about us doing these things, and they get excited,” Powell said. “They think our actions do something that they actually don’t.”

Powell said any ordinance they pass would only affect city-owned properties. Other governmental units that operate within Elgin would have to implement their own restrictions. And nothing the city council could pass would affect private property.

Steffen said he would be in support of “the broadest ordinance that we could possibly pass.” He also cautioned that there’s only so much they can do.

“In conversations with people in the community, they think that this is going to keep ICE out of the community if we do this, and it’s not,” he said.

A lot of discussion centered on how an ordinance would be enforced. Powell said whatever they do, it couldn’t just be for “show.”

“In my mind, if it’s violated, we take them to court for this,” Powell said. “We fight it.”

The council directed City Attorney Christopher Beck to research a resolution or ordinance similar to those approved in other areas.