Kane County officials: Police can’t enforce new law banning civil immigration arrests at courthouses

The Kane County sheriff and state’s attorney say local police officers won’t be able to enforce a new Illinois law that prohibits federal immigration agents from making civil arrests at courthouses.

State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser and Sheriff Ron Hain put out a news release Monday about House Bill 1312, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed Dec. 9. They did so after the county board’s judicial and public safety committee suggested last week that the public needed to be educated about the law.

Mosser told the committee that the new law allows punishing violators through lawsuits filed by people who believe their arrest violated state laws or the state or federal constitutions. She also said police cannot intervene to stop civil arrests.

“So if 911 is called by an individual because of this, there is no crime that is being broken. So the sheriff’s office should not be responding to that situation because there is literally nothing they can do,” Mosser told the committee.

She also said deputies can’t arrest immigration agents who violate the county’s ban on such agents making civil arrests on county property. It is up to county officials to report such incidents to the state attorney general’s office, according to Mosser.

State Rep. Martha Hirschauer of Batavia introduced the bill in the House.

The bill created the Court Access, Safety and Participation Act. The act prohibits civil arrests of people attending, going to, remaining at or returning from the place of a state court proceeding, within 1,000 feet of court buildings and on courthouse grounds and parking lots.

The law says that a person who violates the act is liable for civil damages for false imprisonment if they knew, or reasonably should have known, the person they are arresting is attending a court proceeding as a party, a witness, a potential witness, or the companion of a party, witness or potential witness.

Besides the main judicial center in St. Charles, Kane County Circuit Court has a courthouse in downtown Geneva, and branch courts at the Aurora Police Department and Elgin City Hall.

The new law also put limits on civil immigration enforcement at schools, day care centers and hospitals.

Deportation and removability from the country are matters of civil law, according to Mosser.

Criminal immigration violations include charges that a person has reentered the United States after previously being deported.

Mosser and Hain also reiterated that Illinois’ TRUST Act prohibits state and local officers from giving immigration agents access to people in local custody, allowing use of local agencies’ facilities or databases, helping with or coordinating arrests, or rendering collateral assistance.

It does not, however, prohibit local police from arresting people who try to flee or resist federal agents.

Hain told the committee that immigration agents are at the sheriff’s office three to four times a week, and there have been foot pursuits through the judicial campus parking lot.