Research Note Researched

Illinois — The 'ICE Rider' Loophole: Downstate Jails Holding ICE Detainees Despite Sanctuary Law

The Pattern

Illinois’s Way Forward Act (2021) and TRUST Act (2017) explicitly bar local law enforcement from entering or renewing intergovernmental service agreements to house or detain people for federal civil immigration violations. In practice, a loophole persists: counties hold a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) to detain or transport federal prisoners for a per-diem rate, and ICE is “checked off” on that same contract as an additional authorized agency. This inclusion is the “ICE rider.” Through it, people who are in practice in ICE civil custody are held in downstate Illinois county jails — exactly what state sanctuary law was written to stop.

This is the inverse of the Chicago-area story (Broadview, courthouse arrests, Midway Blitz). It is the quiet, downstate, money-driven channel: sheriffs collecting federal bed fees in apparent violation of the TRUST/Way Forward framework.

What the October 2025 WTTW Investigation Found

WTTW reporter Blair Paddock filed FOIA requests to all 90 Illinois county jails and found at least 17 county sheriff’s offices with ICE riders on their USMS contracts — apparent violations of state law.

Did not respond to requests for comment: Adams, Perry, Pulaski, Macon, and St. Clair sheriff’s offices.
Said they would terminate the ICE rider after being contacted: Franklin, Henry, Mercer, and Jackson counties.
Kankakee County also carried an ICE rider (Jerome Combs Detention Center — previously ~$6.5M/yr in ICE bed fees before state law squeezed it).

The Better Government Association called on IL AG Kwame Raoul to investigate the apparent TRUST Act violations (Oct 1, 2025).

Jackson County: “Overlooked Checkbox” (Feb 2026)

Jackson County signed a contract in February 2026 that included the ICE rider; the sheriff said the ICE checkbox had been “overlooked.” Four days after WTTW inquired, the county submitted an updated contract without the ICE rider. The episode shows both how casually the rider gets attached and how press scrutiny — not enforcement — drives removal.

Pulaski County Context

Pulaski County (FIPS 17153) ended its standalone ICE contract in September 2021 ahead of Way Forward Act implementation, releasing detainees (NIJC documented the closure). Its reappearance among the 17 ICE-rider counties in 2025 shows how the USMS-rider mechanism can revive ICE detention capacity in a county that had formally exited it.

Relevant Counties / FIPS

Pulaski — 17153 (heatmap signal county)
Perry — 17145 (heatmap signal county)
St. Clair — 17163
Adams — 17001
Macon — 17115
Kankakee — 17091
Jackson — 17077
Franklin — 17055
Henry — 17073
Mercer — 17131

Why This Matters

The headline Illinois story is sanctuary-vs-federal conflict in Chicago. But the enforcement reality includes a downstate per-diem economy where sheriffs quietly keep ICE detention alive through Marshals-contract riders. Removal is voluntary and reactive (triggered by reporters, not the AG), and renewals re-attach the rider. This is the “would cooperate if they could — and partly still do” layer beneath the visible Broadview/Midway Blitz fight, and a live test of whether the TRUST/Way Forward framework is actually enforced. It also explains part of the detention-displacement geography: even before transfers to Indiana and Wisconsin, ICE has held people inside Illinois via these riders.

Sources

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