Injustice Watch investigation found Illinois police and sheriffs circumvented TRUST Act to help ICE detain, deport immigrants

On August 25, 2026, Injustice Watch, in partnership with The Intercept, reported that despite Illinois' 2017 TRUST Act barring local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement, local officials from at least 75 agencies across more than a third of Illinois counties fed information to federal immigration agents during President Trump's first 15 months back in office, at times in apparent violation of state law. The investigation -- based on more than 30 hours of body-worn camera footage obtained through FOIA, 394 records requests, and over 100 court filings -- found the collaboration helped flag, detain, or deport at least 150 people.

The TRUST Act, signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, bars Illinois law enforcement from transferring people to ICE custody without a judicial criminal warrant, letting ICE agents into local jails, or otherwise assisting immigration enforcement operations. The investigation documented officers routinely emailing ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents the home addresses, employers, and daily whereabouts of people stopped for minor offenses (roughly 85 such exchanges); sheriffs honoring ICE detainers the law forbids them to honor in at least four counties; and jails releasing people directly to ICE at the U.S. Marshals Service's direction, which contracts with Illinois jails for federal detainee bed space the Marshals then use to route people to ICE.

In one documented case, Riverton, Illinois officer Brad Herzog pulled over Daniel Torrez Perez in April 2025; when Herzog's records check tripped a federal alert, FBI agent Jack Griffin called him and said he could not hold Torrez on the administrative ICE warrant that was the real target, but told Herzog "you can take him under the state warrant" -- an unrelated DUI charge -- "and that would hold him overnight." Herzog complied, and Torrez was taken into ICE custody at the Sangamon County jail the next morning, per an ICE deportation officer's sworn affidavit, and was later deported to Guatemala. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who holds subpoena and hearing power to enforce the TRUST Act, said his office uses "a compliance-oriented approach" and declined to say how many times it has taken enforcement action under the statute. An FBI spokesperson said agents "work within the law and policy to support our partners in immigration enforcement."