Chicago suspends online portal allowing illegal immigrants to get IDs after ICE seeks data

The City of Chicago suspended its online application portal for its CityKey ID program, which provides identification cards to all Chicago residents, including illegal immigrants.

The decision came in response to a subpoena from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that sought personal information about noncitizen applicants, raising concerns among anti-ICE city officials that the federal agency could use the online portal for deportation efforts.

Anna Valencia, the Chicago City Clerk, announced the program's suspension on Friday, June 13, according to local news Fox 32. Pressure to suspend the program reportedly came from pro-illegal immigrant activists, she said.

"We did hear, 'Let's pause the online platform temporarily as we take a pulse and evaluate what's happening," Valencia told the Chicago Tribune. "We're going to assess what's happening daily and where the climate is, and if we feel we are in a different place, we can easily turn the online platform back on, but we are not going anywhere."

The municipal ID program was initially introduced in 2017 to circumvent the public records law and safeguard personal information by exclusively processing applications in person, as noted by the paper. In response to the illegal migration crisis, the city created an online portal to process applicants. These documents are not allowed to be destroyed under public records law, Fox 32 reported.

"Listen, I've always been honest and transparent and led with integrity," Valencia told the Tribune. "I know there's a lot of fear out there, so I want to be very clear that we're going to fight giving over any data to the federal government. No data was given over to ICE, period, zero, for the CityKey."

"I want to go back to the original problem, that if this Trump administration wasn't overreaching for private people's data, this would not even be a conversation," she said. "This is Trump doing a witch hunt and intentionally trying to instill fear in people so that they can overtake our democracy."

The city said it does not have to comply with ICE's administrative subpoena; however, a legal battle could ensue if ICE returns with a court order. Chicago, a sanctuary city, has been on the Trump administration's radar since the president entered the White House in January and has been sued by the Justice Department for its sanctuary policies that do not align with federal immigration laws.