Despite an Illinois law prohibiting data sharing agreements between state law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities, the Illinois State Police makes available the names and information of individuals who they deem to be gang members to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Illinois and its leaders have positioned the state as a protector of immigrants’ rights as the Trump administration has sent hundreds of migrants who are said to be gang members, often with limited evidence to support those claims, to a mega-prison in El Salvador. A 2017 state law, the TRUST ACT, explicitly prohibits Illinois law enforcement agencies from entering into or maintaining agreements that would provide federal immigration authorities direct access to electronic databases. There is an exception if the agency is presented with a federal criminal warrant or if it’s otherwise required by federal law. But according to agreements obtained by WTTW News, the Illinois State Police has shared data with ICE through a statewide computer system, the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS), since 2008, including criminal history data and its gang member file, which could contain citizenship information, according to the LEADS manual. More context: DHS Enforcement and Removal Operations, which oversees the immigration enforcement process, including identification, arrest, detention and removals, entered into a LEADS Agreement in 2024, according to records obtained by WTTW News. When asked whether this agreement potentially violates the TRUST Act, a spokesperson for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, which oversees compliance and enforcement of the law, responded that they have not reviewed the agreements, so they do not have a comment. After WTTW News provided the agreements to the office, they did not respond to a request for comment. LEADS operates as a statewide data system used to share crime statistics and other law enforcement information among various agencies. Among the data Illinois State Police makes available in the system is information about individuals’ alleged gang ties. An unknown number of other local law enforcement agencies across the state may also be sharing information about alleged gang affiliations with immigration agencies through the same system. Illinoisans can land in the LEADS database for wearing “distinctive emblems” or tattoos, according to the LEADS manual. The potential for federal immigration enforcement agencies to use noted gang affiliation as justification for deportation action has civil liberty groups concerned. Gov. JB Pritzker has vigorously defended the TRUST Act, which more generally prohibits state and local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration agents.
