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TO: Mayor John Laesh
FROM: Nicholas Richard-Thompson, Deputy Chief of Staff
DATE: October 29th, 2025
SUBJECT:
Requesting enactment of an Ordinance Creating Chapter 40, "Prohibiting the Use of City of Aurora Property for Civil Immigration Enforcement Activities
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this Ordinance is to exercise the City of Aurora's home rule powers under the Illinois Constitution to protect the public peace, safety, and welfare. This action is narrowly tailored to explicitly prohibit the use of any City-owned and controlled property-including parking lots, buildings, or parks-as a staging area, processing location, or operations base for civil immigration enforcement activities. Enactment ensures the City maintains control over its own resources and personnel, preventing interference with local governmental affairs.
BACKGROUND:
The State of Illinois passed the TRUST Act (5 ILCS 805/1 et seq.) in 2017, which prohibits state and local law enforcement from participating in federal civil immigration operations and prohibits the use of City resources for onsite support. Recent reports confirm that masked federal agents deployed to the Chicago metropolitan area have utilized city and publicly owned property (parking lots, garages, vacant lots) in Aurora and other Illinois communities as staging sites for civil immigration enforcement. The use of Aurora's facilities for these purposes would not only violate the existing TRUST Act but would also severely erode the public trust between local law enforcement and Aurora's immigrant communities, thereby weakening relationships essential to effective community policing and public safety. This Ordinance codifies a local regulation to prevent such use and preemptively address this threat to community trust
DISCUSSION:
The primary benefit to the community is the reinforcement of public trust and safety. By clearly restricting the use of City assets, the City Council reaffirms its commitment to avoiding involveme...
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