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CHICAGO (CN) — The Trump administration filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois, Chicago and Cook County on Thursday morning, claiming local laws designed to protect immigrants violate the constitution.
The lawsuit declares a “national crisis” of illegal immigration and asserts a need to enforce federal immigration laws.
“This action seeks to put an end to one state’s efforts to impede the federal government from doing that,” the government writes in the suit.
The government specifically claims Illinois’ Way Forward Act and TRUST Acts, Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance and Cook County’s Ordinance 11-O-73 all violate the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which establishes that federal law takes precedent over state law.
The government brings three claims in the complaint for purported violations of the supremacy clause. It asks the court to issue permanent injunctions against the enforcement of the challenged laws.
All the local laws named in the complaint generally bar local law enforcement from participating in federal immigration enforcement. The Welcoming City Ordinance further bars Chicago city agencies, with some exceptions, from requesting or disclosing peoples’ citizenship or immigration status. The Cook County ordinance also states that, without a criminal warrant or unless county officials “have a legitimate law enforcement purpose that is not related to the enforcement of immigration laws,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be allowed to use Cook County facilities.
It also states county personnel “shall not expend their time responding to ICE inquiries or communicating with ICE regarding individuals’ incarceration status or release dates while on duty.”
The government claims in its suit that these laws have resulted in “countless criminals” being released into Chicago, noting that between 2016 and 2025, immigration enforcement agencies made over 13,000 arrests in Illinois.
“Upon information and belief, the conduct of officials in Chicago and Illinois minimally enforcing — and oftentimes affirmatively thwarting — federal immigration laws over a period of years has resulted in countless criminals being released into Chicago who should have been held for immigration removal from the United States,” the government writes.
The Trump administration claims “many” arrestees were charged with crimes including assault, larceny, sex and drug offenses, but does not give concrete figures. The complaint similarly does not contain rates of criminal conviction for undocumented immigrants in the Chicago area or Illinois.
The government nevertheless claims the local laws make it harder for federal immigration officers to do their jobs, and subvert the federal government’s authority.
“In rejecting congressionally authorized means of enforcing federal immigration law, including detainers and administrative warrants, these provisions constitute unlawful direct regulation of the federal government,” the government writes.
The lawsuit represents an escalation in the Trump administration’s immigrant crackdown, much of it targeted at Chicago and similar Democrat-controlled sanctuary cities. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan told Illinois Republicans in December that Chicago would be “ground zero” for mass deportations; Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also announced Wednesday that he would participate in the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on sanctuary cities on March 5 alongside the mayors of Denver, Boston and New York City.
ICE has made arrests in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs since Trump returned to office, though the mass deportations Homan augured have yet to materialize. The city maintains public information for immigrants to know their rights when dealing with immigration officials, and immigrant rights activists across the city have mobilized to track ICE activity and protest the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant stance.
Similarly, conservative city alderpersons tried in January to weaken the Welcoming City ordinance, but their proposal was met with a lopsided defeat. Homan, during a CNN interview last month, said Chicago was “well educated” and that this complicated ICE activity.
“They call it know your rights. I call it how to escape arrest,” Homan told CNN.
In a response to Thursday’s lawsuit, Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office defended the state’s immigrant protection acts as lawful.
“The bipartisan Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law by a Republican governor, has always been compliant with federal law and still is today. Illinois will defend our laws that prioritize police resources for fighting crime while enabling state law enforcement to assist with arresting violent criminals,” the governor’s office said in a prepared statement.
Pritzker’s office also accused President Donald Trump of making public safety more difficult.
“Instead of working with us to support law enforcement, the Trump administration is making it more difficult to protect the public, just like they did when Trump pardoned the convicted Jan. 6 violent criminals,” the office said. “We look forward to seeing them in court.”
Since August 2022 Chicago has taken in over 51,000 new migrants, many deliberately sent from the U.S. southern border on the orders of Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott as part of a political attack on Democrat-controlled cities.
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