{"id":436218,"date":"2021-12-16T19:34:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T19:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=daf7fc601ff0d7472d2f7d54599b441c"},"modified":"2021-12-16T19:34:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T19:34:53","slug":"illinois-sets-national-precedent-in-banning-immigration-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/12\/16\/illinois-sets-national-precedent-in-banning-immigration-detention\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Sets National Precedent in Banning Immigration Detention"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Members<\/a>

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Illinois Way Forward Act on December 6, 2021, making immigrant detention illegal in the state after the new law takes effect in the new year. The suit was filed by McHenry and Kankakee Counties, which were holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at their local jails. Pending any further court action, the counties will need to end their contracts with ICE by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Johannes Favi spent 10 months and two weeks inside the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, located an hour south of Chicago. He was released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic because he had underlying conditions putting him at higher risk of death or health complications. \u201cI\u2019m very happy that the judge did what was right,\u201d Favi told Truthout<\/em>. Originally from Benin, West Africa, he now lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, on a work visa with his three kids. \u201cIt is time to advocate for the release of those people,\u201d said Favi. \u201cFamilies should be reunited.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden initially came out opposing for-profit prisons<\/a> and restored the Obama-era Sally Yates memo<\/a> banning federal private prisons that Trump had undone. Since then, immigration leaders have been disappointed<\/a> with Biden, whose administration has increased immigrant detention numbers by 70 percent and opened a new ICE jail in Pennsylvania. Thanks to the efforts of these advocates, states have passed legislation to push back against federal immigration policy.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the Maryland General Assembly voted to override<\/a> the governor\u2019s veto of a similar bill prohibiting local jails from housing ICE detainees. New Jersey passed legislation banning<\/a> any new contracts between ICE and local and private jails. Earlier this year, Washington State passed a bill shutting down<\/a> for-profit detention centers in the state by 2025, and the privately run GEO Group was recently fined<\/a> $23 million by a federal jury for exploiting immigrant prison labor. After a 2019 bill (based in California) banning private prisons, a legal battle ensued<\/a>, with the Biden administration siding with the GEO Group.<\/p>\n

In Illinois, activists have waged a 10-year battle against establishing an ICE detention center in the state. Chicago has historically had a large immigrant community, with the second-largest population of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. ICE has been searching to find a nearby place where it can hold its detainees. In 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed HB 2040, a bill outlawing<\/a> for-profit ICE facilities in Illinois. ICE has been relying on anti-immigrant sheriffs to hold detainees at county jails in McHenry County, northwest of Chicago; Kankakee County, an hour south of the city; and Pulaski County, in far southern Illinois.<\/p>\n

\"Members
Members of the Coalition to Cancel the ICE Contract in McHenry County stand outside the McHenry County Jail in Woodstock, Illinois.<\/figcaption>
Amanda Hall<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People in these communities, working with immigration groups and legislators in Chicago, advocated for the Illinois Way Forward Act, which passed this past spring and was signed into law by Governor Pritzker. Among other things, it prohibits local governments from entering into or renewing a contract to jail individuals for federal civil immigration violations, and requires that such begin the process of ending their contracts by January 1, 2022<\/span>.<\/p>\n