Overview
- Local officials say federal immigration agents returned to the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse to take custody of a person set for a hearing, and they reported no confirmed arrest that day.
- The Public Defender reports repeated courthouse encounters in late February and March, including a woman followed out and detained near the domestic violence court and a separate detention at the Maywood courthouse.
- Illinois law bars civil immigration arrests at courthouses, and the county’s chief judge issued a matching order to keep survivors, witnesses, and families from avoiding court out of fear.
- Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says she is working with the Sheriff’s Office on options to hold agents accountable, while ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have not commented.
- The state ban carries no criminal penalties and instead relies on detainees filing civil lawsuits, which is hard once someone is in federal custody and may blunt the law’s deterrent effect.