Illinois’ ICE detention ban to take effect within weeks following appeals court ruling

Carlos Ballesteros, Injustice Watch, Jan. 13, 2022

"Two Illinois counties that detain immigrants in federal custody in their local jails will have to terminate their contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within weeks, an appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a temporary pause on the enforcement of an Illinois law passed this summer that prohibits counties in the state from renting out their jail beds to ICE. McHenry County and Kankakee County, each about an hour’s drive from Chicago, had sued the state over the law, called the Illinois Way Forward Act, saying that it would cost them millions of dollars in revenue each year. In December, U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard of the Northern District of Illinois ruled that the law was an appropriate use of the state’s constitutional power to prohibit counties from participating in federal regulatory programs, such as immigration detention. The two counties appealed Reinhard’s decision. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by two Illinois counties hoping to keep their lucrative immigration detention contracts. Later that month, the 7th Circuit panel stayed enforcement of the law until Jan. 13. But the panel denied extending the stay Wednesday while the counties’ appeal moves forward."