The Evanston City Council adopted a resolution that creates "ICE-free zones" in the north suburb, banning federal immigration officers from using city-owned property to carry out civil immigration enforcement efforts.
The details of how the zones could be enforced, however, were not immediately clear.
At its Oct. 13 meeting, the council established the immigration enforcement ban through a resolution -- as opposed to an enforceable ordinance. The ban does not include penalties that could be enforced against federal authorities should they violate terms of the resolution.
A spokesperson for the city did not respond to Pioneer Press questions that would further explain enforcement.
According to the resolution, Evanston can "utilize physical barriers such as locked gates to limit access to City-owned and controlled parking lots, vacant lots, garages, or other other property" when and "where available and appropriate."
The resolution directs the city manager's office to create signs proclaiming a property is "ICE-free" from civil immigration enforcement efforts, and to make the signs available free of charge to businesses, medical providers, nonprofit organizations and faith institutions that voluntarily request them from the city.
"Landowners and leaseholders who post this signage do so at their own discretion and assume any legal risk associated therewith," the resolution reads.
In a memo from the city's Chief Legislative Policy Advisor Liza Roberson-Young to the City Council, Roberson-Young wrote that Evanston's "ICE-free zones" are influenced by Chicago's "ICE-free zones." In that case, federal immigration agents staged enforcement operation in parking lots owned by the city of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, violating Chicago's Welcoming City Ordinance.
Evanston's Welcoming City Ordinance already bans federal authorities from using Evanston resources to carry out civil immigration enforcement efforts, which are ones that aren't criminal or approved by a judge.
Evanston has previously adopted somewhat symbolic resolutions to demand more transparency and accountability from federal immigration agents. In September, the council approved a resolution to put pressure on the Illinois General Assembly and the U.S. Congress to ban law enforcement agents from wearing masks while on the job.
In Chicago and throughout the country, ICE agents have been documented wearing masks to conceal their identity. Federal officials say the practice is done to ensure the agents' safety and help prevent their personal information from becoming public. Critics say the masks create an environment of uncertainty and fear because anyone covered up could claim to be a law enforcement agent.
The City Council has also passed a measure that beefed up its ordinance to further punish those who impersonate law enforcement agents.
During the public comment portion of the Oct. 13 meeting, residents spoke in favor of the resolution.
Mayor Daniel Biss thanked them for their words, saying he was particularly struck by comments read by a resident who said, "Our community is literally under attack of our federal government and people are being terrorized -- and also life goes on as usual for a lot of people."
"I think all of us have a moral duty in this case, not to allow life to go on as usual, even if we happen to be the privileged few for whom that's an option," Biss said. "Instead, we all have to step and do absolutely everything we can at all times."