SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois House of Representatives has approved legislation that would significantly limit where new immigration detention centers can be constructed across the state, citing concerns about community impact and public safety.
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House Bill 5024 passed in a 72-35 vote and would prohibit the construction, operation or siting of immigration detention facilities within 1,500 feet of residential areas, schools, daycare centers, public parks and places of worship. Existing facilities would not be affected by the proposed law.
The measure now moves to the state Senate for further consideration and, if approved, would head to Gov. JB Pritzker for final approval.
The bill was introduced by House Speaker Emmanuel 'Chris' Welch, who pointed to the impact of federal immigration enforcement activity near residential neighborhoods as a driving force behind the legislation.
“This is not an abstract policy debate for me — this is personal, and it is deeply local. The Broadview detention facility sits in the heart of the district I represent. And during Operation Midway Blitz, the people who live in and around that community did not just witness aggressive federal activity — they lived through trauma,” Welch said in a press statement.
“This bill says something very simple and very reasonable: detention facilities do not belong in the middle of our neighborhoods. They should not be next to schools. They should not be near day care centers. They should not sit beside parks, public housing, places of worship, or private homes. Because when a detention center is dropped into the middle of a residential community, it doesn’t just affect the people inside that building — it affects every child walking to school, every senior looking out their window, and every family trying to live in peace,” he continued.
Supporters of the bill include local leaders such as Katrina Thompson, who testified in favor of the measure and highlighted its real-world implications for residents living near detention facilities.
“In Broadview, we have residents who live as close as 600 feet away from the ICE facility,” Thompson told lawmakers. “That is not a statistic; those are people, families, children, individuals whose daily lives are directly impacted by what happens around that facility.”
Opposition has largely come from Republican lawmakers, including Patrick Windhorst, who argued the bill underscores ongoing disagreements between state leaders and the federal government over immigration enforcement.
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“The result of this effort to not work together with the federal government to resolve the issues, particularly related to immigration and enforcement of our laws, has resulted in huge problems in our state that the majority party attempts to blame the current presidential administration for,” Windhorst said.
“But we need to take a hard look at what we're doing as a state to make sure we're fulfilling our obligations to protect our citizens and to enforce the laws, including the federal laws of our country,” he continued.
Illinois has already taken steps to limit detention-related development. In 2019, the state enacted the Private Detention Facility Moratorium Act, banning privately operated detention centers.
The latest proposal comes amid continued scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement efforts, including operations such as “Operation Midway Blitz,” which prompted Gov. Pritzker to establish the Illinois Accountability Commission.
If enacted, the bill would take effect immediately, potentially reshaping how and where detention facilities are developed in Illinois moving forward.
Originally reported by Angeles Ponpa in The Fulcrum.
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