The Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois Celebrates

Pro-Immigrant Bills Passed in 2019

 

CHICAGO (June 4, 2019)—The Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) applaud the Illinois General Assembly for passing a slate of pro-immigrant bills this year. Following are the bills won by the Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois, as well as host of additional bills for which the Campaign provided support. The Campaign also applauds and celebrates additional bills passed by the General Assembly this year that support immigrant families:

 

CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES

1. Keep Illinois Families Together Act (HB 1637): Bars 287(g) agreements that deputize police to act as ICE agents (Villanueva/Harmon)

2. Private Detention Facility Moratorium Act (HB 2040): Bars contracts with private prison companies for detention centers, including for-profit immigration jails (Cassidy/Peters)

3. RISE Act (HB 2691): Provides access to financial aid for undocumented students, trans students, African American and other students disproportionately impacted by limitations on aid (Hernandez/Aquino)

 

CAMPAIGN BUDGET PRIORITIES

1. The Immigrant Services Line Item (ISLI) was increased to $6.5 million to increase services under the New Americans Initiative and the Immigrant Family Resource Project

2. Census funding: The General Assembly approved $29 million to fund outreach for Census 2020 targeting immigrants and other hard-to-count communities

 

ADDITIONAL BILLS FOR WHICH THE CAMPAIGN PROVIDED SUPPORT

1. HB 836: Authorizes short-term guardianships for children whose parents are detained or deported (Gong-Gershowitz/Villivalam)

2. HB 1553: Better enables abused, abandoned or neglected immigrant youths to seek state court orders needed to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (Gong-Gershowitz/Castro)

3. HB 2135: Implements REAL ID Act provisions regarding driver’s licenses and specifically enables refugees/asylees to get full-term REAL ID licenses (Evans/Sims)

4. HB 2176: Toughens requirements for persons who offer immigration assistance and penalties who violate those requirements (Villanueva/Martinez)

5. SB 1290: Prohibits landlords from intimidating or retaliating against tenants by threatening to disclose or actually disclosing the tenants’ immigration status (Castro/Mah)

6. SB 1429: Limits introduction of evidence regarding a person’s immigration status in civil lawsuits (Villivalam/Gong-Gershowitz)

 

OTHER PRO-IMMIGRANT BILLS

1. HB 2118: Provides access to Medicaid to survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and certain other crimes who have pending applications for U or T visas (Hernandez/Collins)

2. HB 3196: Establishes an Immigration Task Force with representatives from state agencies and community organizations (Villanueva/ Martinez)

3. SB 172: Allows noncitizens to serve as student representative positions on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees (Martinez/Ortiz)

4. SB 1166: Removes US citizenship requirements for certain professional licenses (Martinez/Ramirez)

5. SB 1610: Allows criminal defendants who plead guilty without having been advised of immigration consequences to reopen their cases within two years of conviction (Sims/Cassidy)

 

Bills listing developed by PASO-West Suburban Action Project

 

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About the Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois

The Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois is an alliance of more than 85 organizations that seeks to pass state-level legislation to ensure that immigrants can fully participate in our society.