A new project is underway with the goal of holding accountable federal immigration agents accused of misconduct. Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is behind the initiative called the ICE Accountability Project, which allows community members to submit their own documentation of incidents.

“ICE has not made any city that they’ve gotten into safer,” U.S. Sen Tammy Duckworth said.  “In fact, in every city they’ve gone into, they’ve created chaos.”

Democrats across the country are proposing state law changes to rein in federal immigration officers and protect the public following the shooting death of a protester in Minneapolis and the wounding of two people in Portland, Oregon.

“Any student of CPD’s modern history can recognize that there have been these groups of officers that have contributed more than their fair share of harm and misconduct,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg told WTTW News Wednesday.

The City Council’s Finance Committee endorsed the $135 million project from Golub & Co to transform 16 floors of the 44-story tower at 30 N. LaSalle St. into 349 homes, including 105 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans.

Both Gov. JB Pritzker and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, say the changes — if ultimately deemed necessary — would be narrow despite Republicans’ desire to see the law drastically overhauled.

The State Department said Wednesday it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States.

The high court ruled 7-2 that candidates like Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. have the legal right to such challenges, even if the ballots have little effect on the race.

Illinois and Minnesota officials are separately suing the Trump administration over the enforcement tactics used by federal immigration agents. The lawsuits seek broader limits on the conduct of immigration agents in both states.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued an injunction Aug. 22 that prevents the Trump administration from blocking funding for some of the nation’s largest cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston and Baltimore.

The proposed non-binding ballot question violates Illinois’ election law, which requires advisory questions to “be confined to one topic and should not contain alternative or bifurcated questions,” the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners unanimously ruled.

Illinois is one of 23 states and Washington, D.C., that are being sued by the Trump administration for access to their unredacted voter rolls. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the Illinois case Dec. 18 following months of efforts to obtain the information directly from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield for the spring legislative session. They’re facing some tough realities: a budget gap in the billions, growing pressure to deliver affordability relief, and a widening financial rift with Washington, D.C.

The lawsuit claims the ongoing “assault” on the state’s sovereignty amid the administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement violates the Tenth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Reporters found the 60-year-old governor did roughly 100 one-on-one media interviews in 2025, his most of any year in his tenure as governor. Of those, 81% were with national media outlets, podcasters, social media influencers or television entertainment hosts — a major uptick from early in his tenure.

The City Council’s Finance Committee on Wednesday is set to consider the proposed settlement, which calls for taxpayers to pay $20 million and the city’s insurance company to pay $2 million. A final vote of the City Council could come Jan. 21.