Chicago City Wire

Sanctuary laws in Chicago and Illinois prohibit local authorities from notifying federal authorities of the whereabouts of illegal immigrants for possible deportation.

But under a proposal before the Chicago City Council, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be notified of illegals arrested or convicted of crimes.

Sponsors of the amendment, Alds. Raymond Lopez (15th) and Silvana Tabares (23rd), say that it will shield illegal immigrants with no records of criminal activities from being swept up in deportations.

15th Ward Alderman Ray Lopez | Facebook/ Raymond A. Lopez

"Our goal is to protect those that deserve our protection: law-abiding undocumented and non-citizen residents who contribute positively to our city," Lopez and Tabares said in a statement. "This narrow amendment ensures federal authorities focus only on those engaging in dangerous, illegal activity, preserving the safety of our communities while maintaining Chicago's immigrant-friendly legacy."

Separately, Tabares said that "all the residents in Chicago have sacrificed services and their tax dollars to appease and accommodate migrants and their advocates and it's time now to say that we're not going to, you know. They shouldn't tolerate living in an unsafe neighborhood. We should make our neighborhoods safer."

President-elect Trump’s incoming border czar has promised to first target illegals engaging in criminal activity for deportation. The stance has put him directly at odds with both Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who have vowed to protect the illegal immigrant populations in the city.

Recent research by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that there are close to eight million illegal immigrants in sanctuary states. With a whopping 530,000, Illinois - a sanctuary state - comes in fifth on that list.

State and local governments with sanctuary laws will present an extra hurdle for incoming border czar Tom Homan to deport those in the country illegally, says CIS’s Jason Richwine.

“When President Trump begins his efforts to deport illegal immigrants in January, he will need to overcome ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ that do not fully cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” Richwine wrote in an article posted on CIS’s website. “As my colleague Jessica Vaughan explains, sanctuary jurisdictions are state or local governments that frustrate enforcement by '“refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.’”

Other sanctuary jurisdictions include the District of Columbia and three states, Maryland, New Mexico and Virginia, which are considered sanctuary states since they have a high number of local sanctuary jurisdictions.

All together, CIS estimates that 56.3 percent of illegals reside in sanctuary states and cities. California leads the list with more than three million.

Illegals have not only become a drain on government resources, especially in Chicago, but some pose a criminal threat to communities, and even threaten national security.