While current federal law prohibits non-U.S. citizens from working in law enforcement, Illinois is looking to change that.
The Illinois House and Senate recently passed Bill 3751 allowing some work-eligible non US citizens to serve in law enforcement in the state.
The bill states, “Reinserts the provisions of the engrossed bill and adds that an individual against whom immigration action has been deferred by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process is allowed to apply for the position of police officer, deputy sheriff, or special policeman, subject to specified requirements. Effective January 1, 2024.”
While the bill awaits Illinois Governor Pritzker’s signature, currently federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)(A)) prohibits gun possession for illegal aliens.
A bill that would allow non-U.S. citizens to become police officers in Illinois is now on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
Federal law states that only U.S. citizens can serve as police officers and deputies. But Illinois House Bill 3751 would change that for immigrants who are work-eligible under federal law.
The bill’s sponsor called it a natural progression – now that some undocumented immigrants can become health care workers and military members.
But an opponent claims giving non-citizens the right to arrest a U.S. citizen would be a “breach of democracy.”
During debate on the bill in May, state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet spoke out against the bill.
Why on earth would we (pass this law)? The most important power of any government, the most important power that must be conferred, with absolute absolute concern for how it is employed and how it can be abused, is the power to arrest.
We listen every day in this building to debates about the police powers of the State of Illinois and yet here we are conferring the police power, the ability to arrest a citizen of the State of Illinois or frankly a visitor to Illinois from anywhere else in the United States of America, an American citizen, to a non-citizen?
(To) hand the power to arrest and detain a citizen of this state or any state in the United States to a non-citizen is a fundamental breach of democracy. It is antithetical to the police power of any state and quite frankly, it’s antithetical to everything that I hear from the other side of the aisle every day in this building.
This is a fundamentally bad idea; there’s no fixing it there’s no amending it, there’s no nothing. It’s just a fundamentally bad idea. I don’t care where this individual is from, Australia, they should not be able to arrest a United States citizen on United States soil. You wouldn’t hand this over to the Russians and say here come arrest us.
There is a greater principle at stake here than the stuff we typically argue about in this building; a much greater principle and you cannot hand the power to arrest any citizen of the United States, let alone the ones we represent here in Illinois, over to someone who’s not a United States citizen.
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