CHICAGO — State lawmakers passed bills Thursday aimed at increasing protections for immigrant communities and limiting how and where federal immigration agents operate.
The bills, which have yet to be signed by Gov. JB Pritzker or go into effect, will ban civil arrests at and near courthouses statewide, create restrictions for hospitals to share patient data and require hospitals to have procedures on how to handle civil immigration activities.
They set similar requirements for day care centers and public universities and community colleges, which are required to have procedures to handle immigration enforcement activities and protect personal information.
Lawmakers also approved a bill that allows people to sue someone who “knowingly” violates the Illinois or federal constitutions while conducting immigration enforcement.
The bill allows people to “bring a civil action against any person who, while conducting civil immigration enforcement, knowingly engages in conduct that violates the Illinois Constitution or the United States Constitution,” according to the bill text.
“Our collective resistance to ICE and CBP’s violent attacks on our communities goes beyond community-led rapid response — it includes legislative solutions as well, and today Illinois made a brave choice to live up to its welcoming values,” Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said in a news release.
It was not immediately clear when Pritzker will sign the bills into law.
Banning ICE Arrests At State Courthouses
The Court Access, Safety and Participation Act bans arrests made without a warrant at or on the way to state courthouses and allows for anyone who knowingly violates the act to be liable for civil damages for false imprisonment, including actual damages and statutory damages of $10,000.
The act bans arrests without a judicial warrant for anyone “who is going to, remaining at, or returning from the place of the court proceeding,” according to the bill text.
In the past few months, over a dozen immigration-related arrests have been made at or near county courthouses, according to the coalition.
These arrests and the presence of immigration agents and vehicles outside courthouses have had “a significant chilling effect on the court system,” Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, previously said.
Victims, witnesses and court visitors have stayed away from courthouses, missed court appointments or failed to seek orders of protection in domestic violence cases, advocates said.
Anti-ICE signs lean against a bollard outside the Circuit Court of Cook County building at as activists pass out informational flyers, in Chicago on Thursday Sept. 4, 2025. Credit: Vincent D Johnson for Block Club Chicago
In early September, two people were arrested by ICE agents at Cook County’s Domestic Violence Courthouse. Immigrants and mixed-status families facing domestic violence are being put in a position where they have to choose between protecting their safety and potentially being targeted by federal agents and separated from their families, said Nina Sedeño, senior immigration policy analyst for the Latino Policy Forum.
The Cook County Defender’s Office said in an emailed statement that the legislation is “urgently needed to protect all Illinoisans and to ensure that courthouses throughout the state remain open and accessible to all members of the public, regardless of immigration status.”
In October, a Cook County judge banned civil arrests at county court buildings, a move supported by legal groups and the Cook County Defender’s Office. That order bars immigration arrests without a judicial warrant for any “party, witness or potential witness” at county courthouses, including places to and from courthouses like parking lots, sidewalks and entryways.
ICE In Health Centers
Another effort, the Health Care Sanctity and Privacy Law, seeks to ensure health care providers and staff can provide quality care without interference by law enforcement.
The bill asks hospitals to have procedures to respond should immigration agents come into their facilities and designate a point person who interacts with immigration officers. The bill also asks hospitals to have a designated space for law enforcement agents to remain and wait at a hospital, according to the bill text.
Hospitals must submit these policies to the Department of Public Health and could be fined if they fail to do so.
Rep. Dagmara “Dee” Avelar, one of the champions behind the Health Care Sanctity and Privacy Law, previously said the bill aims to protect health care workers and patients.
Last month, federal agents handcuffed Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) at a Humboldt Park hospital when she asked them if they had a warrant for a detained man taken to the hospital’s emergency room. Federal agents have also been reported at suburban hospitals.
Students walking through UIC campus on the Near West Side. Credit: Mauricio Peña/ Block Club Chicago
Protections For Early Childhood Centers And Universities
The bills create protections for students of day care centers, community colleges and public universities.
The Public Higher Education Act was amended to require public universities and community colleges to have procedures to review and authorize requests from law enforcement agents attempting to enter a school’s campus by Jan. 1, 2026, according to the bill text. It also prohibits schools from sharing or threatening to share immigration and citizenship status information of students, employees and others. It also bans schools from impeding students or employees from offering constitutional rights and immigration-related information.
This year, Illinois passed the Safe Schools For All Act, which pushes public schools to adopt policies that outline how they should respond if immigration officers come to a school, according to Chalkbeat. It is set to go into effect Jan. 1.
Lawmakers also amended the Child Care Act of 1969 to require licensed day care centers not to share immigration or citizenship status information unless required by law. It also asks day care centers not to allow immigration agents into their facilities unless they provide a valid ID and a judicial warrant or subpoena order.
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