McHenry County allowed to keep holding ICE detainees for now

Just days before a new state law requiring McHenry County to end its contract to house federal immigration detainees was to take effect, a federal appeals court put the issue on hold.

McHenry and Kankakee counties filed a joint federal lawsuit in September challenging Illinois Way Forward Act, which banned counties from entering into contracts to house immigration detainees and required existing contracts to end by Jan. 1.

The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this month. And while McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally said he would appeal the decision, he was not optimistic the county would get an answer before the new year.

The three-judge panel issued a stay Thursday, pushing back the deadline to end the contracts to Jan. 13.

McHenry County's contract requires 30 days' written notice to allow ICE time to remove detainees from the jail's custody, which means the soonest ICE detainees would now be removed from the jail is mid-February.

"We're very glad to get this stay to preserve our longtime contract with ICE as we argue our case," County Board Chairman Mike Buehler, a Crystal Lake Republican, said in a statement. "The Illinois Way Forward Act is an unconstitutional and poorly thought-out law that was hastily thrown together by the General Assembly to make a political statement regarding current federal immigration enforcement."

The McHenry County jail housed 59 federal detainees as of Thursday, according to a county spokesman.