<p>A group of Democratic state lawmakers from around the nation were in Chicago Wednesday to push for more legislation that would give the public the ability to sue ICE agents over fatal shootings and arrests made without warrants.</p><p>“I never imagined that I would spend the majority of my first two years in my term drafting laws and helping support laws that protect people from our own federal government,” said state Sen. Graciela Guzman (D-Chicago) who led a news conference organized by an advocacy group known as State Innovation Exchange.</p><p>“I thought we’d be talking about lowering healthcare, lowering costs, funding our schools, and fighting for a more equitable Illinois. Instead, this (Trump) administration has forced states like ours into a different kind of work, which is defending our communities from federal overreach.”</p><p>Last fall, Illinois became among the few states in the country to allow residents to sue immigration agents who violate their constitutional rights to due process and protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.</p><p>House Bill 1312 was signed into law last fall. The law’s other key provision bans civil immigration arrests in and around Illinois courthouses.</p><p>Lawmakers from other states, including Georgia, Maryland, Utah, Colorado and Minnesota, said they also are pushing for protections for their residents.</p><p>“We have had federal agents break car windows and rain glass down on one-year-old children, or throw middle-aged women to the ground who were peacefully protesting,” said Colorado state Sen. Mike Weissman. “All of us up here are state legislators who deeply believe in using the power that we have under our constitution as states to simply try to make life more livable and more dignified for our constituents.”</p><p>The shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January and now the targeting of immigrants with expired visas at U.S. airports are examples why state lawmakers have to move fast with legislation, said Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh.</p><p>Feteh, whose district is on the south side of Minneapolis, said he authored legislation in early 2024 to protect Minnesotans from the violation of their rights by immigration agents. But, he said his fellow lawmakers felt it was too soon, too politically risky and too hypothetical to pass.</p><p>“Beginning in late 2025, Trump sent 3,000 armed, masked, untrained agents to Minnesota. It was the largest federal invasion in American history in a state that has less than 1% of the nation’s undocumented people. Trump’s agents rounded up random people on the street, they arrested whole families, young children, moms, and old women," Feteh said.</p><p>"They pursued, harassed, detained, arrested, and jailed Minnesotans in every stage of immigration, including legal status, refugees, naturalized citizens, even second and third generation citizens, and then they killed two civilian observers, Renee Good and Alex Pretti,” Feteh added. “Suddenly, the fight to protect people from Trump’s fascism went from being too early to seemingly too late."</p><p>Guzman, co-chair of the Illinois Latino Legislative Caucus, said five lawsuits have been filed under the new state law.</p><p><i>Michael Puente is a reporter and anchor for WBEZ. Reach him </i><a class="Link" href="mailto:mpuente@wbez.org" target="_blank" ><i><u>mpuente@wbez.org</u></i></a><i>.</i><br></p>
Politics
via Chicago Sun-Times – Politics https://ift.tt/nZDSRPb
July 29, 2026 at 05:12PM
Illinois Delivered 