Due mainly to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) sanctuary city protections for gang members and criminals, Chicago has turned zero criminal illegal aliens to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for arrest and deportation.
All three ICE detainers filed with Chicago police in Q3 2022 asking for the custody of criminal illegal aliens were ignored, according to municipal data. The Biden administration has made it harder for ICE officers to issue detainers. Therefore hundreds or perhaps thousands of more illegal aliens may not have been apprehended in Chicago during the period.
Since Lightfoot expanded Chicago’s “sanctuary city” policy, the city has refused to comply with any ICE detainers.
Lightfoot signed the expansion in February 2021, making it impossible for local police to work with ICE in any case involving an illegal alien in the gang database who has a felony conviction, is facing criminal charges, or has outstanding warrants.
Chicago’s first sanctuary city policy, enacted into law in 2012 by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), forbade police from inquiring about the legal status of suspects. Lightfoot’s extension followed.
The 2016 expansion of Emanuel’s sanctuary city policy required that “city personnel treat documented and undocumented immigrants with respect and dignity.”