Chicago Permanently Bans ICE Access to Police Databases

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has permanently banned ICE officials from accessing the city’s police databases. Ahead of the July ICE raids, Lightfoot committed that the city would not coordinate with ICE and would be met with “fierce resistance from Chicagoans who have been organizing tirelessly in their communities, and with an unshakable resolve to stand with, and never against, our immigrant neighbors.”

A Ban of Access to Information

Lightfoot has permanently banned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing the Chicago Police Department’s databases: “We have also cut off ICE from any access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent.”

The Huffington Post reports that Chicago Aldermen and undocumented immigrant activists have asked Lightfoot to issue a written executive order to deny access to Chicago databases to any agency under the Department of Homeland Security, but that Lightfoot “refuses to put it in writing.”

Sanctuary City Regulations

Chicago’s sanctuary city regulations, called Welcoming City Ordinance, currently:

• limits interactions police and other city employees have with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency.
• prohibits local officials from asking a person’s immigration status or turn undocumented immigrants over to federal agents
• bars city officials from threatening to reveal the immigration status of a person to federal officials
• prohibits verbally abusing immigrants based on their race, citizenship, or country of origin

Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot was inaugurated on May 20, 2019, and campaigned to eliminate “carve-outs” in Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance that provide loopholes in the city’s sanctuary laws.

The immigration attorneys at Godoy Law Office in Chicago and Lombard can help you with your immigration case. If you need help with an immigration issue, please contact our office or call us at 855.554.6369.