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The extraordinary disclosure of millions of such personal health data to deportation officials is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has repeatedly tested legal boundaries in its effort to arrest 3,000 people daily.
Immigrant rights advocates have reported seeing some ICE agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves during raids. Advocates say that creates fear and hinders accountability.
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Nationally, construction and agriculture workforces had the highest shares of undocumented workers as of 2022, according to the American Immigration Council.
Chicago and Illinois officials gathered at the West Side museum Wednesday morning to decry the “government overreach” they said took place a day earlier.
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s advisers ordered the release of a dataset that includes the private health information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., to the Department of Homeland Security, The Associated Press first reported last month.
The five-hour hearing focused on questions about whether Chicago Police Department brass and officers violated the city’s Welcoming City ordinance, which prohibits all city employees from assisting federal immigration agents in nearly all cases.
Assembled on a remote airstrip with tents and trailers that are normally used after a natural disaster, the detention center has been nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” a moniker that has alarmed immigrant activists but appeals to the Republican president’s aggressive approach to deportations.
Some members of Congress are saying they’ve been turned away from local ICE facilities as they seek transparency on the conditions detainees are experiencing. Federal appropriations law allows members of Congress to perform oversight of these facilities, unannounced.
U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Jonathan Jackson attempted to enter the immigration facility, located at 2245 S. Michigan Ave., but said they were only able to make it into the lobby before being told to leave by a person identifying themselves as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
“Even if the federal government doesn’t know or care about the Constitution, Chicagoans deserve to know their constitutional rights,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
The governor’s appearance is the latest flashpoint in Illinois’ ongoing battle with the GOP-controlled U.S House and the Trump administration, which is attempting to strip self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding.
“I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Whatever particular vulnerable group is being targeted today, another group will be next.”
President Donald Trump called protesters in Los Angeles “animals” and “a foreign enemy” in a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday as he defended deploying the military on demonstrators opposed to his immigration enforcement raids.
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According to agreements obtained by WTTW News, the Illinois State Police has shared data with ICE through its statewide computer system since 2008, including criminal history data and its gang member file, which could contain citizenship information, according to the LEADS manual.
ICE agents reportedly detained at least 10 people in the South Loop on Wednesday after the people were told to check in to a monitoring program administered by the agency.
The list, which was riddled with misspellings, included sparsely populated counties that have little interaction with immigration authorities, that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump and that have actively supported his hard-line immigration policies.
 

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