Illinois Lawmaker Asks State Prison Guards to Report Immigrant Prisoners Nearing Release—to Her
The Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) has directed its employees to follow the law, specifically 2017’s TRUST Act, which requires them to notify federal authorities that an immigrant is about to be released from a state prison only when presented with an arrest warrant from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Agents may then assume custody of the former prisoner to process for deportation.
But that’s not good enough for at least one state lawmaker. On January 22, 2025, State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) took to X, formerly Twitter, to encourage DOC staffers who “want[] ICE to know of an illegal immigrant” that they should “call or message me.”
“I won’t rat you out,” promised Bryant, a former DOC staffer. “I will notify ICE. I will also, refile the REPEAL of the Trust Act.”
As explained by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “The goal of the TRUST Act is to foster confidence between law enforcement agencies and the state’s immigrant communities”—the sort of confidence undermined for ACLU client Pedro Tlapa Castillo after he skidded though a stop sign on a snowy drive home from work in January 2019.
Tlapa Castillo was arrested and posted bond, but deputies of Stephenson County’s then-Sheriff David Snyders refused to let him go based on a “detainer”—a request from an ICE official, not a court-ordered warrant. ACLU attorneys filed suit for Tlapa Castillo in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois. Snyders and three other Illinois Sheriffs sued to have the TRUST Act voided. They lost, and their suit was dismissed on January 21, 2021. See: Prim v. Raoul, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10833 (N.D. Ill.).
None of that deterred Bryant from trying to recruit state prison guards in her Big Brother effort. “All we want is the offender’s name, institution number and the institution at which they’re being held,” she said, since that is information ICE needs to get an arrest warrant.
Additional sources: ACLU, Springfield State Journal-Register
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