Skokie City Council Finalizes Immigrant Rights Measures

SKOKIE, IL — The Skokie Village Council finalized changes to its village code to protect immigrants rights as human rights at its Monday meeting.

"Rather than simply adopting what other places have written and appending it to our village code, we've gone to the heart of the issue," said Skokie Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge, who drafted the amendment. He said it was meaningful new language protecting immigrants has been placed inside the chapter of the code that deals with human rights.

Skokie joins more than 600 counties and municipalities around the country in formally adopting policies that restrict the kind of help local law enforcement must provide to federal immigration agents, according to an analysis from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, an anti-deportation advocacy group.

President Donald Trump has promised to cut funding to such places, and on Jan. 25 he signed an executive order ("Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States") asking the government to come up with a list of federal dollars currently dispensed to "sanctuary cities" and towns.

Any effort to cut federal grants would face challenges under the 10th Amendment, which stops the federal government from forcing states to enforce federal law and is interpreted by Supreme Court to restrict coercive spending cuts by Washington.

Lorge said Skokie's neediest populations would be most hurt if the Trump administration succeeded in efforts to cut federal money from municipalities that sought to protect undocumented immigrants.

"That money is used to fund social service agencies which are struggling in our community because of others shortfalls in funding." He said none of the money the Trump administration would potentially cut goes to funding the village, "It goes to fund social services agencies that are dealing with the elderly, the impaired, those with disabilities, those that are victims of domestic abuse."

At the council's last meeting, trustees also approved a resolution to support HB426 (The Immigrant Safe Zones Act) and HB3099 (The Illinois Trust Act), which provide sanctuary for undocumented immigrants in state-funded healthcare facilities, schools and universities as well as limiting the involvement of local police departments in federal immigration enforcement.

» Skokie Village Trustees give unanimous approval to first reading of package

Read letter from Michael Lorge, Skokie Corporation Counsel, and ordinance as amended: