Springfield — A downstate Republican lawmaker is urging Illinois jail staff to secretly ship his data on undocumented immigrants who’re behind bars so he can go the knowledge on to federal immigration authorities, elevating issues from a civil liberties group that’s encouraging staff to bypass the state’s Sanctuary Law struggle.
“If you’re (Illinois Department of Corrections) who needs ICE to learn about an unlawful immigrant in IDOC Call or textual content me,” Sen. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro wrote in posts on X earlier this week. “I will not make you unhappy. I’ll notify the ice. “
Bryant’s messages have been launched two days after President Donald Trump took workplace and vowed to instantly crack down on unlawful immigration by authorizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to conduct mass deportation missions in Chicago and in different cities of the sanctuary.
Bryant, who was Trump’s delegate to final yr’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, labored for 20 years at IDOC and retired when she was first elected to the legislature in 2014.
On Wednesday night, Bryant wrote three posts on X that embody what seems to be an inside IDOC order telling state jail staff to not help federal authorities in any immigration enforcement towards individuals incarcerated within the state jail system.
Under the 2017 Trust Act, legislation enforcement officers in Illinois, together with IDOC corrections officers, are usually prohibited from aiding federal legislation enforcement with immigration issues. But Bryant stated in her posts that if IDOC staff belief her about undocumented jail inmates, she’s going to take the knowledge to the feds with out revealing her supply.
“The Illinois Department of Corrections has issued a route to employees to comply with the Illinois Trust Act. This route might place employees ready to lose their jobs or violate federal legislation,” he stated in a single publish. “Ice cannot get a court docket order if they do not know the offender is incarcerated.”
“IDOC personnel are prohibited from notifying or cooperating with ICE, so there isn’t any method ICE would know the offender is incarcerated,” Bryant famous in his publish.
Edwin Yohnka, director of communications and public coverage for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, stated Bryant was clearly making an attempt to encourage IDOC staff to avoid the belief legislation.
“We do not have a ‘select your personal journey’ personal system the place you’ll be able to resolve whether or not or to not comply with the legislation,” Yohnka stated. “A legislator encouraging individuals to seek out another answer that they may take part in individually is de facto, I believe, not reporting properly on the legislative course of within the state of Illinois. You know, (you) need individuals to comply with the legislation. And that ought to embody legislators. “
In an interview, Bryant defended his posts and stated IDOC staff might probably be put ready the place they’d violate a federal legislation, referring to a statute that bars anybody from knowingly harboring an undocumented immigrant.
“So now we have put the employees ready the place they should resolve, do they need to violate federal legislation or do they need to violate state legislation. And on this case, I do not even need them to,” Bryant stated. “The (Trust Act) would not say they can not come to me. It simply says they can not go on the ice.”
“I’m not telling them to name them. I’m telling them in the event that they need to name me, they will name me after which I’ll determine what to do with it,” he stated.
The ACLU challenged Bryant’s interpretation of host legislation and famous that courts have repeatedly upheld sanctuary insurance policies like these of the Trust Act.
Bryant, who stated she would not “usually reply to all the things the ACLU says,” stated IDOC staff can alert her to undocumented individuals behind bars and “we take it from there.”
An IDOC spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Bryant’s messages.
In response to Bryant’s social media posts, a spokesperson for Governor JB Pritzker stated the Trust Act complies with federal legislation and accused Illinois Republicans, together with Bryant, of “spreading inaccurate data to incite concern amongst laborization state staff”.
“Instead of encouraging state staff to comply with federal and state legislation, they’re sowing chaos and concern,” Pritzker spokeswoman Olivia Kuncio stated.
Lllinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s workplace declined to touch upon Bryant’s tweets, however stated Thursday it had issued up to date steerage to state, county and county legislation enforcement companies to make clear their function in relation to the legal guidelines federal immigration authorities.
“Civil immigration enforcement is the duty of the federal authorities. State legislation doesn’t grant native legislation enforcement the authority to implement federal civil immigration legal guidelines. This contains collaborating, supporting, or aiding in any capability with federal immigration enforcement operations except federal brokers have a felony warrant or federal legislation particularly requires it,” Raoul stated in an announcement .
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