Politics
Chicago to Stop Accepting Online Applications for Municipal IDs After ICE Subpoena, City Clerk Says
A mock-up of the city's municipal identification card. (City of Chicago)
Chicago will no longer allow residents to apply online for a municipal identification card after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials subpoenaed records identifying applicants for the ID, known as the City Key, City Clerk Anna Valencia announced Saturday.
“This was a tough decision as this program serves a number of vulnerable populations that rely on the accessibility of City Key, and ultimately, that’s also the reason I’m pausing our online platform,” Valencia said in a statement.
Valencia, who ran unopposed for re-election in 2023, said “the federal government is terrorizing its own people.”
Chicagoans can still make an appointment online to apply in-person for a City Key ID card. Documents submitted by Chicagoans who apply in-person for a municipal ID card are “returned to the applicant, meaning no online record is retained,” officials said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson condemned the subpoena on Wednesday at a City Hall news conference.
“It’s bad,” the mayor told reporters at his weekly news conference. “It’s wrong.”
Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry told reporters the city will not comply with the subpoena, since it could expose the identity of thousands of vulnerable Chicagoans. The Chicago Tribune was the first to report the subpoena.
“We respectfully declined within the bounds of the law, given the privacy issues and specifically the exposure of groups like domestic violence victims, which would have been exposed had that information been provided, which would have been in contravention to their rights,” Richardson-Lowry said.
The Chicago City Council green-lighted the municipal identification card program in 2017 in an effort to help those who could not otherwise get a government-issued identification card to access city services, cultural institutions, programs and other benefits. Trump threatened during his first term to deport undocumented immigrants.
Officials vowed to prevent those records from being turned over to federal officials during Trump’s first term in office.
Chicagoans can use the cards to ride the CTA, check out books from the Chicago Public Library and get discounts from local businesses. Anyone who lives in Chicago is eligible for the card, as long as they can provide official documents that include their photo, date of birth and proof they live in Chicago.
In 2023, the City Key program struggled to meet the demand for the identification card from the approximately 50,000 people, many fleeing violence and economic collapse in Venezuela, who made their way to Chicago hoping to build a new life.
Valencia first proposed allowing Chicagoans to apply online for a municipal identification card to expand access to the City Key during an October 2023 hearing before the City Council.
City officials began accepting online applications for City Key cards in December 2024, a month after President Donald Trump was elected to a second term. That little-noticed change was approved in May 2024 by the City Council, records show.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to crack down on all forms of immigration and launch what the official platform of the Republican Party called the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
It is unclear why Valencia and officials in the mayor’s office created an online application system for the municipal identification card after Trump’s reelection, since state law requires government agencies to retain records submitted online.
The ordinance that created the City Key program explicitly prohibited Chicago officials from keeping personally identifiable information for fear it could be used by federal immigration agents as part of a crackdown designed to deport undocumented immigrants.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
