Max Herman/Borderless MagazineLos defensores y los expertos afirman que Illinois debe abordar nuevas cuestiones jurídicas sobre hasta qué punto la legislación estatal puede prevalecer sobre la autoridad federal.
Outside the Domestic Violence Courthouse in downtown Chicago, Cook County officials and immigrant rights advocates gathered in early May to denounce what they described as an increasing federal immigration enforcement presence at courthouses.
The message was simple, but not new: courthouses should be off-limits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Everybody should have their day in court,” said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).
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In recent months, immigrant arrests at courthouses have become more frequent, as federal agents challenge the state’s legislation intended to prevent these arrests. Under current law, anyone arrested by ICE at a courthouse can sue for civil damages — a remedy legal experts say is grounded in preexisting federal law.
That remedy, however, is being tested as immigrant arrests continue despite state efforts to protect courthouses.
Most recently, advocates said ICE agents were present at four Cook County courthouses on May 7 and arrested two people on their way to court hearings on May 18. ICE presence in sensitive locations prompts fear and prevents people from showing up to court, advocates say.
“Survivors of gender-based violence, in particular, already face barriers to resources,” said Trisha Teofilo Olave, who works with immigrant survivors of violence at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “The fear of being abducted by federal agents when attending a hearing in state court is adding another layer of fear and further increasing the barriers to justice.”
When President Donald Trump returned to office, he rescinded a 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy that had designated schools, hospitals and courthouses as “sensitive locations” where immigration enforcement was generally restricted. Federal agents now have broader authority to arrest in those settings.
In December 2025, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Court Access, Safety and Participation Act (CASPA), which bans civil immigration enforcement within 1,000 feet of courthouses. The broader legislation also requires hospitals to prepare for potential interactions with federal agents and extends protections to immigrants at universities and day care centers.
“With my signature today, we are protecting people and institutions that belong here in Illinois,” Pritzker said in a press release at the time. “Dropping your kid off at day care, going to the doctor, or attending your classes should not be a life-altering task.”
The legislation has faced legal pushback from the federal government. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging CASPA shortly after it was signed into law, arguing it was an “unconstitutional attempt to regulate federal law enforcement officers,” according to a press release.
Despite the lawsuit, CASPA remains in effect. However, the legislation has fallen short of its goal of shielding sensitive locations from immigration enforcement.
Since February, the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender has confirmed at least
13 arrests of people who were either attending, heading to or leaving court proceedings, including at the Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse.
“These individuals who are coming to our county courthouses, they are engaging with us in good faith,” said Cook County Commissioner Jessica Vásquez (8th District). “They are going to access their due process rights, and protecting them and their capacity to access this opportunity, that is incredibly important for us to do.”
According to a spokesperson from Gov. Pritzker’s office, CASPA allows for “civil damages for false imprisonment,” meaning those who may have been arrested by a federal agent in violation of the law may be entitled to damages of $10,000 if they were attending a state court proceeding.
Martin Klein, a legislative staff attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), said the law focuses on individuals bringing lawsuits for violations of their rights — rather than another enforcement mechanism — because CASPA is grounded in existing federal law. MALDEF was one of the organizations sponsoring CASPA.
Klein said CASPA draws on the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which allows individuals to bring civil lawsuits against federal officers or employees to get financial compensation for wrongful conduct.
“We wanted to make sure that what we did was effective and in fact useful for individuals, and so that’s why the remedy is grounded in the FTCA, because the FTCA is federal law,” Klein said. “It cannot be argued that it is a remedy that goes beyond what’s permitted by the Constitution.”
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Illinois’ law is similar to courthouse access protections enacted in New York and Colorado, with minor differences in definitions, Klein said.
Legal experts say the state’s enforcement of the law remains an open question, however.
Van Brunt, of the MacArthur Justice Center, said federal agents’ actions have raised new legal questions about jurisdiction and the extent to which state law can address federal action under the Constitution. The Supremacy Clause governs the authority of state law over federal law and vice versa.
“This is really all new territory,” Van Brunt said.
Klein said CASPA declares that courts have the authority to issue rules to enforce the law, and what that looks like in practice can vary from court to court.
“What it doesn’t do is spell piece by piece all of the specific requirements that need to be implemented at the court,” Klein said. “That is left to the courthouses themselves to do.”
Pritzker’s office did not respond to questions on what steps the state is taking to enforce its ban on ICE arrests in courthouses.
Katie Pelech, attorney supervisor at the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender, said in her 13 years of legal practice before the Trump administration, she had never seen immigration enforcement being done at courthouses in this way.
“I witnessed one immigration arrest at one courthouse in my entire career,” Pelech said.
Arrests have continued, she said, even after cases are dismissed. The practice has also interrupted ongoing proceedings, and she said one of her clients was deported before their court case was resolved.
Attorneys like Pelech have had to redirect their focus to advising clients on immigration risks at courthouses — making it more difficult to prepare for cases. It also presents new challenges for immigrants with access to their constitutional right to argue their cases in court or seek protection from domestic violence, she said.
“Whatever burden it imposes on us is minuscule by comparison to the threat that our clients are facing,” Pelech said. “But it’s just difficult to see this and want to help and have limited ways in which we can do so.”
The public defender’s office is recommending virtual court hearings when possible for those concerned about immigration enforcement.
As immigration agents continue to conduct immigration enforcement in violation of state laws, advocates are searching for ways to navigate new legal territory and protect immigrant access to courthouses and healthcare.
ICIRR hosts weekly “Know Your Rights” and rapid response trainings for community members.
“Fear right now is clearly the objective of this administration,” said Diego Morales, a rapid response organizer with Pilsen Unidos por Nuestro Orgullo. “Their point is to terrorize people, to terrorize us, to terrorize our communities. But we are fighting back.”
