Immigration

Bloomington Police Chief Clay Wheeler said Monday he plans to draft an immigration policy for his department that’s similar to the Welcoming ordinance Normal adopted last month.

Bloomington Police would get an official reminder that their job is to enforce local and state laws—and not federal immigration law—under a proposed Welcoming City ordinance that aldermen will finally vote on Monday night.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis said Wednesday that President Trump’s new executive order to address his controversial zero-tolerance immigration policy may complicate things on Capitol Hill.

Two Bloomington activists traveled to Texas on Sunday for a Father’s Day protest of the Trump administration’s decision to separate children from their families as a way to curb illegal immigration.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that the proposed ordinance has been released. You can read it here.

The Normal Town Council will take up a Welcoming City ordinance at its meeting on Monday.

Mayor Chris Koos said there might be some last-minute tweaks to the proposal, but the measure leans on the language in the town's Comprehensive Plan and Visioning Report.

Five aldermen who tried to remove the Welcoming City ordinance from the Bloomington council agenda probably did not break the law, according to a noted First Amendment and public access attorney in Illinois.

Two potential draft Welcoming City ordinances are now available for the city of Bloomington. Mayor Tari Renner said he sees no problem with having both of them go to the City Council.

Bloomington aldermen are asking to halt scheduled discussion of a Welcoming City ordinance, clouding the prospects for future public consideration.

The Justice Department is again ramping up pressure on cities seeking public safety grants to prove they are cooperating with immigration authorities.

Officials on Wednesday sent letters to roughly two dozen jurisdictions warning that the department could use subpoena power to force them to provide documents showing they aren't withholding information about the immigration status of people in custody.

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said he believes GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell's promise to have a vote soon on immigration will be easy to keep. That promise was part of the deal to end a brief government shutdown this week.

President Donald Trump has turned his Twitter torment on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn.

The Bloomington City Council is moving its Dec. 18 meetings to a larger space due to the amount of public interest in the immigration ordinance topic it will be discussing.

The advocacy group Illinois People’s Action again lobbied the Bloomington City Council on Monday for a so-called Welcoming Cities ordinance to protect immigrants.

Unit 5 schools plan to pursue a property tax levy that will mean almost no change for the owner of an average home in the district.

At least two significant demonstrations were sparked Tuesday in Bloomington-Normal after President Donald Trump's decision to wind down a program protecting young immigrants from deportation.

Normal Mayor Chris Koos is lending his support to a national effort by mayors to allow so-called Dreamers—young people who were brought to this country without documents as children—to remain here legally.