CHAMPAIGN — Illinois has remained a target for immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. The president has made it a priority to conduct his mass deportation campaign in Chicago and cities across the state.
Over the weekend, progressive organizations gathered in Champaign to discuss their goals, including plans to respond to federal immigration policies.
IPM’s Stephanie Mosqueda spoke with Fred Tsao, policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, first discussing the recent Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
STEPHANIE MOSQUEDA: The Supreme Court has now ruled against court injunctions that could challenge President Trump’s executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship. Some legal experts have said that the ruling means the policy approach to birthright citizenship could vary by state. How do you view this ruling?
FRED TSAO: Yeah, this ruling is incredibly disturbing and is in clear disregard of the plain language of the U.S. Constitution, the 14th Amendment, as well as more than 120 years of court precedent. So, unfortunately, the court did not rule on the legality of the order itself. Instead, it took a sideswipe at federal courts and their authority to limit what is clearly illegal activity.
People whose rights are going to be violated by executive action are going to need to file their own lawsuits or join class action lawsuits that may get filed, and the ability of courts to issue emergency orders in those lawsuits is now very limited. Unfortunately, the executive order could now go into effect while that litigation is moving through the court system. That, unfortunately, is going to mean that countless children — countless families — are essentially going to be stateless.
MOSQUEDA: And how might this impact current protections for immigrant families?
TSAO: This ruling and this executive order are part of a larger trend to try to strip legal protections away from people who previously enjoyed them. But probably more significant is that now the ability to challenge other actions by Homeland Security, by ICE, by the White House, is also now very limited as well.
MOSQUEDA: There have been recent reports of immigration and Customs Department activity in Illinois, including individuals being detained in Urbana and much of the Chicago area. How has the coalition responded to these developments and what support are you providing to the affected communities?
TSAO: One of the major things that we are operating is a hotline. It’s our Family Support Network Hotline, 855-435-7693. People can call that hotline if they see ICE agents at their door or on the street, or just have other kinds of questions regarding laws, immigration services, or what have you. That hotline is live answered. Our operators are trained to connect and refer callers to other agencies that may be able to connect them with legal assistance or other kinds of assistance that people may be eligible for.
One of the things I do is a lot of Know Your Rights training and education. We have a network of presenters who we have trained to give Know Your Rights presentations, basically informing people of what their rights are, how they can respond if they are stopped by an ICE agent, what they can do if they are arrested.
MOSQUEDA: What are the coalition’s top priorities for the remainder of 2025?
TSAO: Yeah, well, we are going to remain diligent and vigilant with respect to ICE activity. We see what’s happening in Los Angeles. We’re very, very concerned that the raids that have been happening out there will come to Illinois. The White House and Homeland Security have said that states like Illinois, communities like Chicago, are in the crosshairs. So we’re very concerned about that. We’re going to do the best that we can to educate people and to make sure that we have teams on the ground who are able to respond as best as we can, to document, to support people left behind.
We are looking at other potential legislation. The State General Assembly is not meeting right now, and it’s not scheduled to reconvene until October. That gives us some time to think through what our advocacy priorities are going to be. We’re going to be undertaking a process that engages our member organizations throughout the state in hearing what they’re concerned about, what issues are important to them and the people they work with, to come together to build a shared platform that we can advocate for in the fall and into next year. So, that’s going to be the work over the next several months or so.