Crime & Law

Trump Threatens Illinois’ Federal Funding Over Elimination of Cash Bail. Here’s What to Know

President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week aimed at ending cashless bail nationwide.

Illinois in 2023 became the first state to fully eliminate the use of cash bail with the Pretrial Fairness Act. Proponents said the law is intended to address equity issues.

However, the president claims such policies allow “dangerous individuals to immediately return to the streets and further endanger law-abiding Americans.” The administration said cities and states that do not comply with the order risk losing federal funds.

“I like the fact that it’s bringing national attention in that at least maybe some more eyes will be on it, which could lead to potential lawsuits where it ends up in the U.S. Supreme Court instead of where it ended up last time when we as state’s attorneys initially filed suit against the SAFE-T Act,” said Clay County State’s Attorney Phillip Givens.

Specifically, the executive order signed Monday directs U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to compile a list of state and local jurisdictions that employ cashless bail policies. The Trump administration plans to then identify which federal funds are currently provided to those jurisdictions that can be suspended or terminated.

“You’re going to have concerns in certain aspects where funds are absolutely needed, and if that’s being withheld based on a suit or a law that I still feel is unconstitutional, even though the Illinois State Supreme Court reversed the decision of our circuit court, I think that you’re going to get more suits that come from that, but I think that helps get it to an overall answer from the U.S. Supreme Court of whether it’s a constitutional act or not,” Givens said.

Trump has been escalating his focus on public safety, particularly in Democratic cities such as Washington, D.C., where the president deployed National Guard troops and federal agents over the objections of local officials.

“I think it’s ridiculous; I think this is a political stunt,” former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said. “I think the cash bail system that we now have in Illinois mirrors what the federal system has, which does not generally require cash bond. The president right now is doing anything and everything to cause chaos and really highlighting Democratic-led cities. This is political theater.”

The Pretrial Fairness Act faced legal challenges that caused monthslong delays to its implementation. Sixty-two Illinois state’s attorneys filed a lawsuit claiming the act will lead to a spike in violent crime.

“We continue to have a lower jail population than we initially did, and we continue to have people who were out on pretrial release commit new offenses,” Givens said. “And the biggest issue that we keep running into of late now are trespassers who we can’t detain whatsoever.”

According to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office, communities across the state are seeing sustained reductions in violent crime. Homicides were down nearly 10% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to latest FBI data. And interstate shootings were down 31% in 2024 compared to 2023 and are down nearly 71% since 2021.

David Olsen, professor and co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago, said in an email to WTTW News that based on publicly available data from Clay County, most individuals charged with a crime that is detainable under the Pretrial Fairness Act are being detained in the county. Since the Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect, there have been roughly 108 people arrested who were eligible for pretrial detention. Of those, 87 were petitioned for detention by the state’s attorney’s office, and 81 were detained. Those rates of detention being sought and detained are high relative to other counties in Illinois.

Olson also noted that the Clay County sheriff and the Flora Police Department did not appear to report complete data going back to 2023, which predates the Pretrial Fairness period.

In his latest efforts to crack down on violent crime, Trump is threatening to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, claiming the city is a “killing field.”

“This is an attempt to militarize Black and Brown communities,” Foxx said. “This is not about public safety. This is about having the military on American soil police Black folks, and it is unconstitutional. This is … theater on the backs of Black and Brown communities.”

Matt Masterson contributed to this report. 

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