Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, signed into law on Tuesday a measure that restricts immigration enforcement outside state courthouses and that makes it easier to sue immigration agents if residents believe their rights have been violated.
The Democratic-backed legislation was approved by lawmakers in October in the midst of a federal crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area that has led to thousands of arrests and repeated clashes between agents and residents.
Supporters said the measure was a necessary response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. The new law also limits the information that hospitals, day care centers and colleges in Illinois can provide to immigration agents.
“Residents should be able to go to court, take their kid to day care and have access to the university they attend without fear they will be kidnapped off the street,” State Representative Lilian Jiménez, a Democrat from Chicago, said in a statement when the bill passed.
Illinois Republicans and the Trump administration criticized the measure, which they said made it harder for federal agents to do their work and made the state less safe. State Senator John Curran, the Republican leader in his chamber, said during a floor debate that “this is going to get set aside by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Mr. Curran took particular issue with the law’s ban on civil immigration enforcement at state courthouses or within 1,000 feet of those courthouses. California and New York also have laws restricting civil immigration arrests at courthouses.
“We’re pushing this more and more, with these prohibitions, into uncontrolled settings,” Mr. Curran said. “And with uncontrolled settings, there are heightened risks.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement after the bill passed that “nothing in the Constitution prohibits arresting a lawbreaker where you find them” and that making immigration arrests in courthouses “is common sense.”
“It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be,” the department’s statement said.
Illinois and its largest city, Chicago, have often been singled out for criticism by the Trump administration over their immigration policies. The state has for years limited cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and immigration officials.
Mr. Pritzker, who is often mentioned as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has called the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign inhumane and at odds with his state’s values.
“After what our communities have experienced, we understood that our response needed to be deep and comprehensive to counter the Trump administration’s depravity,” the governor said on Tuesday.
Mitch Smith is a Chicago-based national correspondent for The Times, covering the Midwest and Great Plains.
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