ICE Detains Illinois Immigrants in Out-of-State Jails

"After the Way Forward Act banned ICE from detaining undocumented people in state jails last year, the agency began detaining undocumented Illinois residents in Wisconsin and other states."

Diana Rashid, a managing attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center shares she has seen a reduction in the number of Illinois residents experiencing detention under ICE custody.

"We have definitely seen a noticeable decrease in Illinois residents being detained,” Rashid said. "We attribute that in large part to the closure of Illinois jails because there is overall limited housing space for noncitizens within this area,” Rashid said.

But the Way Forward Act has not stopped ICE from continuing to detain residents of Illinois. The agency has simply found new ways to detain people, often requiring more resources to apprehend people and to take them out of state, Rashid said."

Read more from José Abonce in his article at South Side Weekly: