Politics
Illinois county prosecutors shared defendants' personal data with ICE, investigation finds
State's attorney offices in one-sixth of Illinois counties routinely shared court dates, home addresses, and photos with federal immigration agents without criminal warrants.
The short version
- An investigation revealed that state's attorney offices in one out of every six Illinois counties shared sensitive information about defendants with federal immigration authorities during President Donald Trump's second term.
- County prosecutors and staff provided details including home addresses, photographs, dates of birth, and court schedules without federal criminal warrants or public disclosure.
- The findings highlight legal ambiguities in Illinois' 2017 TRUST Act, which restricts local police from assisting federal deportation efforts but leaves prosecutor compliance unclear.
- More than half of Illinois state's attorney offices reported having no contact with federal immigration agents, while several involved prosecutors defended the cooperation as standard or legally exempt.
Key facts
- State's attorney offices in one out of six Illinois counties provided personal data of defendants to federal immigration agents over a 15-month period.[Wired]
- Information shared with immigration officials included photographs, home addresses, dates of birth, and jail release times without federal criminal warrants.[Wired]
- The Illinois TRUST Act of 2017 prohibits local police agencies from assisting federal deportation efforts without a judicial criminal warrant.[Wired]
- An examination of over 5,000 pages of records obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests revealed information sharing across multiple county prosecutor offices.[Wired]
- More than half of the 102 state's attorney offices in Illinois reported no record of contact with federal immigration enforcement.[Wired]
What remains uncertain
- It is legally uncertain whether state prosecutors and administrative staff are subject to the same TRUST Act restrictions that apply to law enforcement officers.[Wired]
- The full extent of local cooperation remains unverified due to referenced phone conversations that fall outside written public records.[Wired]
Sources
- The County Prosecutors Who Became ICE InformantsWired metered