Max Herman/Borderless MagazineUnder a new measure, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) can investigate complaints against police cooperating with federal immigration agents — a violation of the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) can now investigate the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) alleged collaboration with federal immigration enforcement.
On Wednesday, the city council adopted an ordinance giving COPA the authority to investigate alleged violations of the city’s Welcoming City ordinance. The ordinance limits cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Some alderpeople and immigration advocates said more oversight is needed after allegations emerged that CPD officers worked with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amid Trump’s immigration crackdown last year.
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The ordinance received support from the majority of the city council despite a push by Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) for it to be referred to the Committee on Police and Fire.
“The city is meeting the moment,” Fuentes told Borderless after the meeting. “I think today meant a lot to constituents, immigrants or otherwise, to know that they can have confidence in a system that’s going to hold folks accountable who violate the Welcoming City Ordinance.”
The Welcoming City Ordinance is a 2012 city law that prohibits agencies, including CPD, from assisting, participating, or collaborating in federal civil immigration enforcement.
Before Wednesday’s city council vote, the city lacked a clear plan for who would investigate Chicago police cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement.
In September, Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) introduced the new ordinance following calls from police district councils, alderpeople and community members to investigate whether CPD had violated the Welcoming City Ordinance as immigration enforcement increased under Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz.
The ordinance was approved by the committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the committee on Police and Fire earlier this year before it was sent to the full council. However, Ald. Silvia Tabares (23rd), Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st) and Lopez delayed the full city council vote in February.
The city council’s approval on Wednesday marked a turning point for advocates pushing for more accountability for violations of the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance.
“We are pleased that the city council passed this necessary ordinance today, and we will continue to organize to ensure that Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance is upheld and enforced,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).
The new ordinance amends the municipal code to expand COPA’s powers and duties to conduct investigations of complaints against CPD for violating the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance.
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COPA has received 44 complaints about incidents related to federal immigration activity, including protests that happened between June 4, 2025, and Feb. 17, 2026, according to COPA. “Some of these complaints are duplicates of others, meaning they were about the same incident,” COPA officials told Borderless Magazine.
Before the vote, Lopez again argued against the ordinance.
“This matter should be fully vetted, not only with the law department but with our own police department, which did not even understand that the executive orders that they’ve been given may put them in contradiction to what this law is trying to do,” said Lopez at the city council meeting.
In response, Fuentes and Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) said the police and fire committee had already been consulted and voted in favor of moving it to a full city council vote during a joint-committee meeting in January. Fuentes also said CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling supports the ordinance and reaffirmed his support in a call with her right before the meeting.
“Any further attempts to try to continue to stall it are disingenuous at best and embarrassing at worst,” said Vasquez during the city council meeting. “Looking at the matter and just identifying who should investigate is not controversial at all.”
Ald. Bill Conway (34th) expressed support for the ordinance during the meeting, saying it simply adds to COPA’s powers and duties.
“I know there are folks in this chamber who disagree with the Welcoming City Ordinance; many have broader questions about immigration enforcement, but frankly, that debate has really already been had,” he said. “The Welcoming City Ordinance, like it or not, is the law of the land.”
South Loop ICE arrests spark concerns about Welcome City Ordinance Violations
In June 2025, concerns of police cooperation with federal immigration agents emerged from the police department’s presence at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) arrests in the South Loop.
During the incident, at least 10 people, including a grandmother, were arrested when they showed up for a check-in at an ICE facility. The arrests quickly led to a rally in which federal agents clashed with organizers and three alderpeople.
The incident sparked calls from community members and alderpeople for an independent investigation into the police’s participation in the confrontation between agents and organizers.
CPD admitted to responding to three emergency calls for assistance at the site of the immigration arrests on June 4, but CPD Director of Community Policing Glen Brooks contended at the hearing that the department did not collaborate with ICE that day.
The following month, the city council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights discussed the police department’s presence at ICE arrests in the South Loop. At the July hearing, city officials couldn’t decide who — COPA or the city’s Office of the Inspector General — should conduct an independent investigation into the June 4 arrests.
Still, accusations of police cooperating with federal immigration agents continued.
Earlier this year, Chicago’s Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) held a listening session in which attendees shared testimonies about allegedly seeing CPD working with federal immigration agents, including setting up perimeters during immigration arrests. CCPSA oversees the Chicago police, COPA and the police board, and already conducts investigations about police misconduct.
During a separate meeting between Police and Fire and Immigrant and Refugee Rights committees in January, the immigration committee said that aside from having a designated authority to conduct such probes, it needs regular data on Welcoming City Ordinance compliance and requests for assistance with immigration enforcement from CPD.
The committee also pointed out other gaps in the Welcoming City Ordinance, including mechanisms to hold DHS accountable for breaking other city laws and clear consequences for city employees who violate the law.
Fuentes said she plans to continue working with LaKenya White to refine processes for investigating violations of the Welcoming City Ordinance. White was confirmed as COPA chief during the city council meeting on Wednesday.
COPA has already been reviewing complaints sent to them prior to the adoption of this ordinance and will continue to review new ones, Fuentes said. Community members can submit reports of violations of the Welcoming City Ordinance to COPA.
“It’s pretty simple: we can’t call ourselves a Welcoming City if we have no process for investigating and holding accountable the people who violate our Welcoming City laws,” Vasquez said in a written statement after the vote. “This is one small but meaningful step toward achieving that goal.”
Aydali Campa is a Report for America corps member and covers environmental justice and immigrant communities for Borderless Magazine. Email Aydali at [email protected].
