Injustice Watch/WIRED investigation found Illinois state's attorneys shared residents' personal data with ICE despite TRUST Act

On August 25, 2026, an Injustice Watch investigation published in partnership with WIRED found that Illinois county state's attorneys' offices in roughly 1 in 6 of the state's 102 counties fed federal immigration agents sensitive personal and location information about local residents -- including birthdates, home addresses, court dates, and scheduled jail-release dates -- during the first 15 months of President Donald Trump's second term, despite the state's 2017 TRUST Act. Injustice Watch obtained more than 5,000 pages of internal emails and case files through Freedom of Information Act requests filed with all 102 Illinois state's attorney's offices, several of which turned over records only after the outlet sued.

In one documented case, Marion County Assistant State's Attorney John Christeson emailed a Homeland Security Investigations agent the date of birth, upcoming court date, and Centralia, Illinois home address of Rolando Perez Samayoa, a defendant Christeson's office was prosecuting for a DUI arrest. The agent, Sergio Fulgencio, replied "Ok, we'll take care of it, thank you," and later asked for Samayoa's police report, which Christeson also sent. Three weeks later, federal agents arrested Samayoa outside his home and detained his 17-year-old son as well; both were removed to Mexico by February 25, 2026.

The correspondence Injustice Watch reviewed spanned prosecutors' offices statewide, including DuPage, Menard, Cass, Mason, and Kendall counties, and crossed party lines. The TRUST Act bars police and other law-enforcement agencies from helping federal agents deport people absent a federal criminal warrant, but state's attorneys disagreed among themselves about whether it binds their own offices. DuPage County State's Attorney Bob Berlin said the law applies to his office, which nonetheless contacted federal immigration agents more than any other prosecutor's office in the state; Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart said his office is not bound by the law, but declined to cooperate with immigration agents regardless. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office enforces the TRUST Act, said in a statement that "applying the TRUST Act in practice requires state and local enforcement to navigate complex interactions in circumstances that are not always clear-cut," without resolving whether prosecutors are covered by it.