In a series of incidents uncovered by Injustice Watch, law‑enforcement officers across Illinois have been found collaborating with federal immigration agents despite the state’s TRUST Act, which was designed to keep local police out of immigration enforcement.
Local officers sidestep the law
One vivid example occurred in April 2025 when Riverton police officer Brad Herzog ran a traffic stop on 31‑year‑old Daniel Torrez Perez. A routine database check triggered a federal alert, and an FBI agent named Jack Griffin called Herzog, informing him that Torrez carried an ICE warrant. Because the TRUST Act bars officers from acting on immigration warrants without a criminal judge’s order, Griffin suggested a workaround: Torrez also faced a state DUI warrant. Herzog arrested him on that charge, booked him into the local jail, and kept him overnight, effectively handing him over to ICE the next morning.
Herzog’s actions are not isolated. The investigation documents similar collaborations in more than a third of Illinois counties, involving at least 150 people who were swept into the federal deportation system during the first 15 months of President Trump’s second term.
How agencies are violating the TRUST Act
The TRUST Act, passed in 2017 with bipartisan support and signed by former Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, prohibits local officials from providing information to immigration agents unless a federal criminal warrant is present. Yet the records show a pattern of violations:
- Police departments emailing ICE the home addresses, employers, and daily whereabouts of individuals stopped for minor offenses.
- Sheriffs honoring ICE detainers that the law expressly forbids.
- Detectives requesting immigration status checks on victims of unrelated crimes.
- Jails releasing detainees directly to waiting ICE agents.
Most of these exchanges were simple data pulls—running a name through a law‑enforcement database that automatically triggered a federal alert. Roughly 85 such email exchanges were identified in the review.
Legal nuances and loopholes
The TRUST Act does allow limited exceptions: officers may act on a federal criminal warrant, voluntarily disclose an individual’s immigration status, or release an arrest report when legally required. However, the law leaves shared databases untouched, meaning a routine name check can still alert federal agents.
Legal scholar César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández of Ohio State University notes that these collaborations often arise from “professional relationships that commonly develop among law‑enforcement officers, especially in small communities where people know each other.” While many interactions are “entirely aboveboard,” they can clash with the statutory directives of the TRUST Act.
Local examples beyond Riverton
In Tinley Park, a southwest Chicago suburb, emails reveal a steady flow of information to ICE. Detectives exchanged passport photos, entry‑exit records, and address details with Homeland Security Investigations agents. One officer even supplied an ICE deportation officer with a full report on a suspect, after which the federal agent confirmed the individual’s custody.
These practices raise serious questions about the effectiveness of state‑level protections when local officials choose to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Ongoing legal battles
Injustice Watch has filed lawsuits against more than a dozen local, state, and federal agencies to obtain the withheld records. The true number of people affected is likely higher, given the missing documentation.
As the Trump administration continues to prioritize immigration enforcement, Illinois’ experience illustrates the challenges of maintaining state‑level sanctuary policies in the face of federal pressure.
Original reporting: Block Club Chicago — read the source article.
