Ending Immigration Detention?

 

New Illinois Law Expected to Go Furthest Toward Ending Immigration Detention in the US

A new Illinois law limiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention is expected to effectively end detention in the state by next year. The law goes further than those that have limited detention in other states.

On August 2, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed SB 667, known as the Illinois Way Forward Act. The law prohibits local governments from signing new contracts with ICE and requires existing contracts to end by 2022. All three detention centers in Illinois are county jails that contract beds to ICE, which will no longer be allowed. The law still permits ICE to operate its own detention centers, but it does not currently have any in the state.

ICE uses several types of contracts to detain the tens of thousands of people in its custody around the country. Most people in ICE detention are held in facilities owned by private prison companies or local governments. ICE owns a small number of facilities directly.

Other states have taken steps to end detention but will do so on a longer timeline. In 2019, California’s AB 32 similarly ordered the phasing out of private detention. However, ICE quickly secured long-term renewals of four contracts before the bill went into effect, allowing these facilities to continue operating through 2034.