‘Right thing to do’ or ‘feel-good’ PR? Suburbs split on whether ICE bans on municipal property actually work

After a year in which some suburbs pushed back against Operation Midway Blitz through local laws prohibiting immigration enforcement on municipal property, questions linger over how effective those measures have been.

During the opening weeks of the immigration enforcement campaign, people started showing up at village board and city council meetings demanding that local officials protect community members from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

In Hanover Park, those calls led to vigorous debate through a series of meetings in November over whether to join the ranks of suburbs that passed laws banning the use of local government property for federal immigration enforcement. Village board members ultimately voted to adopt an ordinance on Dec. 4.

Other suburbs that approved either ordinances or resolutions prohibiting the use of municipal property for immigration enforcement included Aurora, Arlington Heights, Batavia, Downers Grove, Elgin, Naperville, West Chicago and Wheeling.

Others opted against such measures, despite repeated requests from advocates.

Among them was Hoffman Estates, where officials said a ban would be ineffective and create a false sense of security.

Art Janura Jr., who serves as a corporation counsel for Hoffman Estates, likened it to believing a local government could tell the FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to go away.

“The (ICE-free zone) signs are nothing but a feel-good issue,” Janura said. “One hundred percent PR. That sign doesn’t mean anything to the feds.”

At one time, Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig held a similar view.

But he and others were persuaded by several factors, including the day ICE came for one of Hanover Park’s foreign-born police officers.

“I was concerned that we can’t stop ICE,” Craig said. “But you have to take the values of your community into account.

“The town was essentially asking us to do something,” he added. “After a year, it feels like the right thing to do. We stood by our belief system, and it turned out well.”

Village Trustee Yasmeen Bankole spearheaded the call for Hanover Park to take a stand.

With a population that is 69% minority, Bankole said the village had a taste of increased ICE activity during President Donald Trump’s first term, before the Illinois TRUST Act prohibited local police from assisting federal immigration enforcement.

That experience made her and her colleagues all the more ready to respond last fall, she said.

“This was an issue that moved several members of the board,” Bankole said. “The fight had already come to us. Just caring about our residents and what they were going through was itself an act of dissent, and the ordinance was just a part of that. We really were — in any way, shape or form — just trying to combat the chaos. So yes, I believe it was effective.”

The village’s Montenegro-born police officer ultimately prevailed in demonstrating his legal right to work for Hanover Park — after two weeks in detention — but he later decided to move on. Craig said he still regrets losing the officer, who spoke seven languages and served a community with residents from 50 different cultures.

Democratic state Rep. Fred Crespo of Hoffman Estates, whose district includes Hanover Park, said he understands why local leaders would enact bans to show residents they care.

If they want to enact those bans to provide a safe harbor for the undocumented, those efforts are doomed to fail, he added.

“It’s more of a symbolic deterrent,” he said.

Crespo said that Illinois prosecuting cases in which ICE is accused of exceeding its authority is a more effective step.

In January, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a 100-page, 19-count complaint against the Department of Homeland Security over enforcement actions taken during Operation Midway Blitz. The case remains active in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Last November, Elgin officials approved a resolution prohibiting city-owned properties from being used as a staging area, processing location, operations base or other support for immigration enforcement.

But unlike an ordinance, a resolution is less binding.

As part of Elgin’s resolution, city officials would document alleged infractions by federal agents and work with the Illinois Accountability Commission to create a public record of agents’ conduct.

In April, the commission issued a report finding “patterns of illegal and violent conduct” by agents during Operation Midway Blitz, including dangerous high-speed vehicular pursuits and indiscriminate use of chemical agents.

Christopher Goodman, a professor of public administration at Northern Illinois University, says he isn’t surprised that some communities opted to craft resolutions rather than ordinances because of questions over enforcement.

“In our constitutional system, the states and federal government are co-equal with different responsibilities,” Goodman said. “The local governments are at a disadvantage constitutionally.”

He said the state is in a better position legally to deal with the federal government. Still, he understands why some municipalities wanted to try.

“This is a complicated question for local government,” Goodman said.

He added there is no outcome that will make everyone happy “and that’s part of the problem.”

epeterson@dailyherald.com