Illinois' Other Welcoming Communities Not Watching Chicago's Trump Lawsuit

Leaders in central and southern Illinois' welcoming communities, Urbana and Carbondale, say they're not watching Chicago's lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the Justice Department's sanctuary city policies.

A number of municipalities outside of Chicago are or have been thinking about becoming welcoming communities, which according to the group Welcoming America are "guided by the principles of inclusion and creating communities that prosper because everyone feels welcome, including immigrants and refugees."

They have or would have similar policies for illegal immigrants as Chicago.

Carbondale city councilman Adam Loos said the biggest difference is that downstate cities don't run their own jails and don't have to worry about informing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about immigration violations.

"In Carbondale, we're not going to use our limited resources to enforce federal immigration law," Loos said. "There's a whole arm of the federal government whose job it is to do that."

Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin said pretty much the same thing.

"The City of Urbana is in compliance with immigration law," the mayor said in an email this week. "We do not operate a jail nor do we obtain immigration/citizenship status information from individuals, therefore it is highly unlikely that Attorney [Jeff] General Sessions’ efforts will have any impact on the City’s access to federal grants, given the focus of his enforcement activities."

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week sued the Trump Administration to keep millions of dollars federal police grants while also ignoring the administrations orders to share information about illegal immigrants with the Justice Department.

story by Benjamin Yount, Illinois News Network

photo via Chip Somodevilla-Getty Images News