The Trump Administration has ramped up Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the Chicago area this month as part of President Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda, and effort to bring down what he calls “out of control” crime in the city.
Administration officials criticize Illinois immigration protections as obstacles to immigration enforcement, pointing in particular to the Illinois Trust Act. The law bars local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration agents.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi cites the law as a hindrance, even as ICE arrests have increased, spurring fear in immigrant communities. Immigrant advocates argue the description of the Trust Act misrepresents its purpose.
“These laws are about public safety,” Olivia Alden, a staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, MALDEF.
“Sanctuary is a misnomer. What we’re talking about is people feeling comfortable reporting crimes that happened to them. We know that this population are often subject to all kinds of labor violations, domestic violence under the assumption that they will not come forward for fear of immigration consequences,” Alden said.
Several ICE arrests around Kane County Court buildings draw concern from advocates about possible coordination between federal immigration agents and local law enforcement despite the restrictions.
Last month, Telemundo reported ICE arrested an American citizen outside the Kane County Judicial Center for attempting to hand back paperwork dropped by a woman being arrested by ICE.
On July 17, Kane County Sheriff deputies assisted ICE agents in detaining a man resisting arrest inside the courthouse.
On the same day, a video shared with Latino News Network shows a Kane County Sheriff deputy involved in an ICE arrest in the parking lot of the courthouse.
In the video, a law enforcement officer with a badge of a five-pointed star labelled ‘Kane County Sheriff’ and a name tag ‘Garcia’ pressures a man to get out of the car. Federal agents are seen at the edge of the video as the deputy addresses the wanted man in Spanish.
Regarding the video, Alden said she would need more information to make a judgment on whether the deputy’s involvement violates the Trust Act, but is alarmed by what the video captures.
“What we do see really clearly is the one individual in a vest that says ‘Sheriff,’ which is obviously not somebody employed by DHS,” Alden said. “So that to me as somebody that works in this area, that’s kind of triggering alarm bells in my head.”
Speaking in Spanish, Garcia tells the man, “They have an arrest warrant. Are you going to get out of the car or not?”
When the man asks to make a call, Garcia replies: “We’re not going to give you time to call someone.” The man eventually agrees to step out, and Garcia adds, “I want you to get out, and I will explain everything to you.”
Latino News Network requested comment from Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain. In an email, the Kane County Undersheriff Amy Johnson stated, “Regarding the information associated with the request, there was no further assistance other than Deputy Garcia translating for the individual involved outside of the courthouse on July 17, 2025.”
Shaw Local News reported Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain acknowledged a sheriff deputy’s involvement in the ICE arrest to assist with translation.
Alden said the Illinois Trust Act prohibits local law enforcement from providing on-site support to immigration enforcement. “It seems pretty clear to me that the prohibition of other on-site support would include just mere translation,” she said.
Before being apprehended by ICE agents, the man attended a court hearing where he pleaded guilty for a 2024 aggravated DUI for driving with a suspended or revoked license, according to court records.
Alden questioned whether a DUI offense, a state charge, would solicit the involvement of federal agents.
“A DUI can have consequences for trying to adjust your status or some other kind of civil immigration consequence later down the line, but that doesn’t equate to a federal criminal warrant,” she said.
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie L. Mosser said deputies acted lawfully under the Illinois Trust Act.
“Under subsection H of the Trust Act, when local law enforcement is presented with a federal criminal warrant, then they can provide certain assistance, which would include the translation services,” Mosser said.
The Illinois Trust Act, which was signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017, allows for local law enforcement to cooperate with immigration enforcement agents when executing a federal criminal warrant.
The signature of a judge is one indication that a warrant is a federal criminal warrant.
When Latino News Network asked Mosser if the warrant was signed, she said “I can tell you that I asked the circumstances what happened and he [Kane County Sheriff Ron Hein] provided me with the information that a federal criminal warrant was provided.”
She added, “I did not ask follow-up questions from there, because I trust in the deputies and our sheriff. I know that they would follow the law as it is.”
Videos from the incident paint another picture. In the clips, federal agents refuse to demonstrate a warrant to the wanted man. Instead, they show an image on a cell phone, and made references to an immigration and administrative warrant.
In the first video a federal agent in a vest labeled Police HSI, Homeland Security Investigations which falls under ICE, and wearing a neck face mask, stands at the passenger door.
“You’re making this much worse,” the ICE agent said. “You have an immigration warrant. Step out now or the window will be broken.”
In the next video,the driver of the car repeatedly calls for immigration enforcement agents to present them with a warrant.
Moments later another agent lifts a cell phone screen up to the passenger window to briefly show what’s supposed to be the warrant.
An agent is heard referring to the warrant as a 200. “You want me to show him the 200 again on the phone?”
A “200”, refers to an administrative warrant for arrest “of an alien or warrant for removal, deportation,” Alden said.
“An administrative warrant will be directed to any immigration officer and signed by an immigration officer,” she said. “Whereas, the federal criminal warrant is signed by a judge because the arresting officer has to provide probable cause in order to obtain that federal criminal warrant.”
Elgin-based criminal attorney Caroline Hernandez said she’s alarmed ICE agents aren’t following due process if in fact agents produced a federal criminal warrant.
“A cell phone is not a way to effectively communicate that,” Hernandez said. “If this were to go to any federal court, they’d immediately say ‘Nope, that’s not a proper notice.’”
ICE has not responded to a request for more information regarding the arrest.
She said the federal agents’ actions outside the courthouse fits President Trump’s penchant for spectacle.
“If you have a valid warrant, then execute it the way things have always been done,” she said. “You have to do it in the least obtrusive way. You have to do it in a way that doesn’t disrupt the court. You need to tell me, putting on a production and [in a] parking lot, if people are leaving, is necessary? No, it wasn’t.”
Cristobal Cavazos, executive director of Immigrant Solidarity DuPage, suspects deputies in Kane County are working more directly with ICE than officials admit.
“I’m suspecting in Kane County, you have some people in the police and some of the forces that have a direct tie to some of these agents, and are aiding and abetting this,” he said.
The organization routinely patrols throughout the northwest suburbs for ICE sightings and holds outreach events to several communities on “Know Your Rights” trainings.
Several members of the group were present outside the Kane County Judicial Center when they witnessed ICE arrest a woman on August 14.
“That week our comrade was out there, ICE was literally just waiting outside of the courthouse,” Cavazos said. “In some cases, inside of the courthouse. And that particular day when he (Jim Yanke) was taken, they had already taken a gentleman who was leaving the courthouse. ICE just scooped him up and took him in front of our patrollers.”
The Latino News Network reached out to the St. Charles Police Department for comment, but did not receive a response.
Kane County includes cities with significant Latino communities. Elgin’s Hispanic population is more than half. Advocates say the city, about forty miles from Chicago, has experienced the brunt of ICE arrests in Illinois since Trump’s inauguration.
Data on ICE arrests, according to the Deportation Data Project, doesn’t differentiate Kane County as a location for its activity. It would likely fall under the greater Chicagoland area as “Chi-General area, non-specific.”
“I think the real big backstory here is the fear, anxiety, and the weakness that the Trump administration is trying to impose, particularly on the Latino community,” Cavazos said.
Many of the people arrested by ICE work in food and beverage factories in Chicago’s surrounding suburbs, he added.
“These are not illegal workers,” he said. “These are essential workers.
Alden noted the Illinois Trust Act only sets restrictions on law enforcement and not on the courts.
She said ongoing ICE arrests at courthouses will have a chilling effect on immigrants without legal status’s participation in the justice system.
“By chilling participation in open court, in open democracy, it’s a loss to us all really, because people are not being able to come forward and tell their stories and achieve that justice that they may be entitled to,” Alden said.
“Many fewer victims are going to be willing to come forward if they are afraid that it will end in their deportation, that it will end in them being separated from their children,” she added.
MALDEF is investigating several complaints of violations of the Illinois TRUST Act throughout the state.
While individual complaints of law violations have been permitted by the courts, Alden said the law explicitly outlines actions the Illinois Attorney General can take to remedy law violations.
“They can investigate particular departments; they have subpoena power,” she said. “There’s also written into the statute reporting requirements that all local law enforcement agencies are subject to training requirements.”
Latinos News Network reached out to the Illinois Attorney General for comment and did not receive a response.
She said if someone believes they’ve been a victim of a violation of the Trust Act, they should file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General.
“I would not be surprised if we see some investigations, some into some sheriff’s departments, local law enforcement agencies in the future, led by the Illinois Attorney General,” Alden said.
Maria Gardner Lara is a reporter covering the Chicagoland area.
Photo Credit: Angeles Ponpa/Latino News Network