SPRINGFIELD — As the Illinois General Assembly wrapped up its spring session early Monday morning in overtime, Democratic lawmakers sent Gov. JB Pritzker a slate of bills targeting immigration enforcement, electric vehicles and voting rights, while a proposed prescription drug affordability board and a police quota ban joined the Chicago Bears stadium tax break package in dying without final votes.
Among the most significant measures to clear the legislature was a bill barring federal immigration detention centers from being built within 1,500 feet of schools, parks, homes, churches and other community spaces — a direct response to the violent clashes that roiled the Chicago suburb of Broadview last fall during the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation.
The bill passed 39-17 in the Senate during the overnight hours on Monday after clearing the House in April by a 72-35 vote. It was introduced by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, of Hillside, whose legislative district includes the Broadview’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at 1930 Beach St. — the flash point for weeks of confrontations between federal immigration officers and protesters during what became known as Operation Midway Blitz.
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat whose district also covers the facility, was the main Senate sponsor of the bill.
“Beginning late last year, residents of the village of Broadview woke up to chaos at their doorsteps,” she said on the Senate floor early Monday, moments before the bill passed. “The village of Broadview contains the only detention center in Illinois, and the village contends it has been forced to incur significant burden and expense as a result.”
The bill prohibits a federal immigration detention center from being “located, constructed, or operated within 1,500 feet of the property boundaries of any school, day care center, day care home, cemetery, public park, forest preserve, public housing, private residence, or place of religious worship, regardless of address.” Welch has said the measure would not apply retroactively, meaning the existing Broadview ICE facility would not be forced to close.
The legislation could, however, block federal efforts to expand ICE facilities in Illinois. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last year openly considered the possibility of expanding the Broadview facilities. The new DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, previously said that he wants to “work with community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the President set out.”
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson praised the bill’s passage, saying in a statement that “no Illinois community will be forced to absorb a detention facility in the shadow of its schools, its churches, or its homes.”
The legislation does carry some legal risk. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco and covering most of the western U.S., has ruled that states cannot bar the federal government from using private contractors to operate immigration detention centers. During an Illinois House committee hearing in March, Welch downplayed concerns, saying, “We live in the 7th Circuit (which covers Illinois), and it’s very different than the 9th Circuit.”
The Broadview facility has been at the center of one of the biggest political and legal dramas. The site of tense and often violent confrontations outside the ICE facility included questionable tactics by the federal officers who used tear gas and less-lethal munitions on demonstrators, disrupting everyday life for a few months. Last month, prosecutors dropped all charges against the remaining defendants in the “Broadview Six” case, in which a group of protesters, most with ties to Democratic politics, were accused of conspiring to block and damage an immigration agent’s vehicle outside the ICE facility in September. The collapse of the case sparked accusations of prosecutorial misconduct, triggering turmoil in the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago and prompting both Illinois U.S. senators to call for the resignation of the office’s top prosecutor, Andrew Boutros.
Despite the Democratic momentum on immigration legislation, lawmakers did not include in the final budget a $50 million grant program and an emergency loan program meant to help businesses in the Chicago area still struggling from the economic fallout of Operation Midway Blitz.
What failed to pass
Also falling short was legislation to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would have been empowered to review drug prices and assess whether certain medications are out of patients’ reach. The bill passed 62-39 in the House but was never called for a vote in the Senate. Similar boards exist in several other states.
Opponents argued the board would create new bureaucratic layers without meaningfully lowering prices. Supporters cast it as a necessary check on drug costs — an issue the federal government has also begun to address through Biden-era provisions taking effect this year.
“We are at an all-time boiling point in terms of people’s inability to have the healthcare system that they need, and prescription drugs is one of those symptoms but it is something that we can do something tangibly around,” said Democratic state Sen. Graciela Guzman of Chicago, the main Senate sponsor of the measure. “So we’re going to keep working on it.”
A bill that would have prohibited municipal police departments from evaluating officers based on quantifiable contacts, such as traffic stops, arrests and written warnings, passed the House without opposition in April but stalled in the Senate. Police chiefs opposed it, arguing those metrics are essential for performance reviews.
The issue has been the subject of litigation, as one Chicago police supervisor received a settlement of just under $1 million after alleging he was removed from a citywide unit for refusing to pressure officers to meet traffic-stop and arrest quotas.
What did pass
Lawmakers approved a regulatory framework for electric bicycles, motorcycles and scooters, championed by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias’ office. Currently, high-speed e-bikes, e-scooters and electric unicycles — some capable of exceeding 50 mph — operate with no state regulation.
The new law would require riders of e-bikes and e-motos to obtain a driver’s license, title, registration and insurance, and bar them from sidewalks, bike lanes and bike paths. E-scooters, electric skateboards and electric unicycles would be prohibited from exceeding 28 mph.
“When injuries and fatalities are surging and with some e-bikes, e-motos and e-scooters traveling faster than 50 miles per hour, ignoring the problem is not an option,” Giannoulias said Tuesday in a statement. “This legislation establishes common-sense standards that get ahead of a growing public safety problem, help prevent tragedies and make our roads, sidewalks and bike paths safer for everyone.”
In election-related legislation, a bill dubbed the Jesse Jackson Sr. Young Voter Empowerment Law passed with nearly 50 Democratic House sponsors and more than a dozen in the Senate. It “requires a school district” to provide voter registration opportunities for high schoolers, though there’s no penalty for districts that don’t comply — essentially making the policy optional. It comes as elections have become especially polarized across the country, and is intended to make it easier for a new generation of prospective voters to be added to the rolls.
Before the bill passed in the Senate, Republican state Sen. Jil Tracy of Quincy questioned during a committee hearing whether such a law was necessary, referring to a separate state law requiring the state Board of Elections to prepare a “one page document explaining the process to register to vote to be disseminated to high school age students,” and wondered whether it was being enforced.
But state Sen. Robert Peters, a Chicago Democrat and the Senate sponsor of the new legislation, explained that while the document is “informative,” he said, “I think this is about making sure that there’s a clear opportunity to register to vote.”
The legislature also passed AI-related measures in response to the advent of the technology, including one establishing regulations for large AI companies and another prohibiting the use of bots to purchase event tickets in excess of posted limits. But others were not able to make it through the General Assembly before early Monday morning’s adjournment, including one that would have prohibited teachers from using AI to assign grades on student work.
Tribune reporter Jack O’Connor contributed to this story.
