State claims federal agents used military-style tactics in attempt to coerce Illinois into changing its immigration policies
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois and Chicago sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, seeking to severely limit immigration agents’ authority in the state and accusing the feds of unleashing an “organized bombardment” to coerce state and local officials to change their immigration policies.
State and city leaders want to end the feds’ “roving patrol” policy of interrogating people they encounter on the street about their citizenship and immigration status without any probable cause. They’re also seeking to limit crowd control tactics such as the use of tear gas to disperse nonviolent crowds and to prevent the feds from scanning the biometric information of state residents.
“Border Patrol agents and ICE officers have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement. “They randomly, and often violently, question residents. Without warrants or probable cause, they brutally detain citizens and non-citizens alike. They use tear gas and other chemical weapons against bystanders, injuring dozens, including children, the elderly and local police officers.”
Raoul, along with the city of Chicago, filed the 103-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. It accused the federal government of applying pressure over policy differences through means such as withholding federal funds, attempting to deploy the National Guard and, most disruptively, executing an immigration enforcement operation described by state officials as “causing turmoil and imposing a climate of fear.”
The state is asking the court to find that the federal government has violated the 10th Amendment and order federal agents to stop using tactics that exceed their statutory authority.
Gov. JB Pritzker released a statement in support of the lawsuit, writing that “in the face of the Trump Administration’s cruelty and intimidation, Illinois is standing up against the attacks on our people.”
“Today, Illinois is once again taking Donald Trump to court to hold his administration accountable for their unlawful tactics, unnecessary escalations, and flagrant abuses of power,” Pritzker said in the statement.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story will be updated.
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