Politics

New Illinois Law Allows Non-Citizens to Become Cops

AUG 1 2023·Updated AUG 27

Story

Image credit: Flickr [via Wikimedia Commons]

The Facts

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a bill that will allow non-US citizens to apply for police officer positions.
NBC Chicago
House Bill 3751 — due to go into effect Jan. 1, 2024 — will allow non-citizen permanent workers and recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to become police officers.
New York Post
Illinois reportedly has 30K DACA recipients living in the state and claims to have statewide officer shortages.
FOX 32 Chicago
While DACA recipients are protected from deportation, they're not granted official legal status. In 2021, Judge Andrew Hanen closed the program to new applicants, claiming that former Pres. Barack Obama's administration didn’t have the authority to enact it via executive order.
Newsweek
The law comes as Pritzker has signed other controversial bills, including one allowing the state attorney general to crack down on pregnancy centers that allegedly use “deceptive tactics” to divert women pursuing abortions.
FOX News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Republican narrative

Pritzker is promoting woke ideology at the expense of not only the state's police integrity but also the law, as, under federal legislation, only US citizens are allowed to be cops. While he may claim his heart is in the right place, this decision will only serve to erode the public's confidence in law enforcement.

TheBlaze

Democratic narrative

Illinois’s new law comes amid a record shortage of police officers, and it only applies to people who are legally allowed to work and DACA recipients who have been in the US since they were children — many of which are already serving in the US military. Gov. Pritzker is strengthening the state's police force by growing its outreach. This is the right move.