Politics
Illinois Lawmaker Wants to Help Federal Immigration Officials ID Undocumented People in State Custody
A Department of Homeland Security sign is pictured in a file photo.
In an October interview with a downstate radio station, state Sen. Terri Bryant said she gave a list of undocumented individuals currently being held in Illinois state prisons to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
“If Gov. Pritzker doesn’t want to do his job then get out of the way and let the people who do want to do their jobs come in and do it,” Bryant said during the radio interview. “Gov. Pritzker says that he wants the worst of the worst taken out of this state — I gave a list to Kristi Noem of 12 individuals who are locked up in the Department of Corrections who are illegal immigrants locked up in the department.”
In an interview with WTTW News, Bryant, a Republican from Murphysboro, said she doesn’t remember how she obtained the list. But earlier this year, she asked Illinois Department of Corrections staff to contact her if they knew about undocumented people she can report to ICE.
That ask is “hugely problematic” for Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of the prison watchdog group the John Howard Association.
“Targeting individuals in a way that is detrimental to communities, to our criminal legal system, to our prison system does not strike me as a great use of anybody’s time or a reasonable thing to be doing,” Vollen-Katz said.
Bryant’s office provided the list to WTTW News and the information appears to be details that immigration officials most likely already had access to.
“I don’t know what the document means fully, I just turned [it] over to them,” said Bryant.
In response, a spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker’s office stated that “Senator Bryant is trying to score political points as she ignores the fact that federal agents are unlawfully detaining U.S. citizens that are Black and Brown and have never committed a crime, as opposed to actually detaining ‘the worst of the worst.’
“As always, the federal government has every possible means and ability to identify public records on their own accord without needing input from state agencies or information shared by elected officials,” the statement continued.
WTTW News acquired a redacted version of the list from Bryant’s office, which is titled “Active Warrants,” but it is unclear what type of warrants are being referenced. However, the spreadsheet does include a column titled “issuing agency” — all of which are either Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
That could refer to an administrative warrant, meaning it was documentation that ICE already had access to. Those warrants are usually signed by an immigration officer, directing someone to make an arrest — but not a search.
The spreadsheet lists nine individuals and their IDOC numbers, last and first names (all three are redacted in the copy provided to WTTW News), warrant status, status and issuing dates, issuing and assigned agents. The warrants had been issued between 2006 and 2025.
Bryant, who previously worked in corrections, said she was not able verify that the list was an internal IDOC document — but she said she recognized it as one.
Illinois Department of Correction spokesperson Naomi Puzzello said the department did not provide a list of undocumented people to Bryant. The department did not respond to follow-up questions about the authenticity of the list and whether or not it had been provided to the senator by an IDOC staff member.
When WTTW News asked Bryant if she was concerned that the list contained false information, she responded that she believes it is true.
“This isn’t like I turned this over to some kind of vigilante group, I turned it over to a federal agency,” Bryant said.
Bryant said she believes it doesn’t violate the Illinois TRUST Act, which generally prohibits local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement.
“A person maybe can’t talk to me as an employee of the Department of Corrections while they’re on state grounds, but they certainly can be a concerned citizen who has access to something and make me aware of it,” Bryant said.
When questioned about Bryant’s actions, a spokesperson from the governor’s office stated that “the bipartisan Illinois TRUST Act, signed into law by a Republican governor, continues to be followed and complied with throughout the State of Illinois.”
The Illinois Attorney General’s Office, which oversees compliance and enforcement of the state’s sanctuary laws, did not provide comment.
Contact Blair Paddock: @blairpaddock.bsky.social | [email protected]
