Illinois lawmakers have passed legislation designed to protect residents from aggressive federal immigration enforcement while simultaneously creating pathways for legal action against constitutional violations. The bill, HB 1312, advanced through the General Assembly in late October and now awaits Governor JB Pritzker’s signature.

The legislation is a response to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the Chicago region and across the state. Passed during the fall veto session on October 30-31, 2025, the bill cleared the Illinois Senate with a 40-18 vote and the House with a 75-32 vote.

The Illinois Bivens Act allows any person to sue those who violate constitutional rights while conducting civil immigration enforcement.

Individuals can pursue all monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief available under common law, with violators subject to statutory damages of $10,000 for false imprisonment plus actual damages. The legislation also includes factors courts should consider when determining punitive damages, including whether an officer wore a facial covering, failed to identify themselves, failed to activate a body camera when required, or used crowd control equipment during the violation.​

Winners of such lawsuits can recover reasonable attorney fees, expert witness fees, and other litigation costs—a provision designed to encourage legal action against constitutional violations.

Included in the legislation is the Court Access, Safety, and Participation Act. These Acts establish a privilege from civil arrest for individuals attending state court proceedings, protecting parties, witnesses, potential witnesses, and court companions.​

This protection extends a 1,000-foot perimeter around Illinois courthouses, including courthouse buildings, parking facilities, sidewalks, parkways, and surrounding streets. The law reaffirms a centuries-old common law privilege recognized since 1887 but increasingly threatened by federal immigration enforcement activities.​

Violations carry significant consequences, with perpetrators liable for civil damages of $10,000 in statutory damages plus actual damages for false imprisonment, provided they knew or reasonably should have known the arrested person was attending court proceedings in good faith.

The Health Care Sanctity and Privacy Law also imposes new requirements on hospitals regarding federal immigration enforcement. General acute care hospitals must adopt and implement new policies by January 1, 2026, while other hospitals have until March 1, 2026.​

Required policies include designating specific contact persons to field all law enforcement inquiries, procedures to verify law enforcement identity and authority, and designated spaces where agents can wait while maintaining patient privacy and staff safety. Hospitals must obtain proper judicial warrants or court orders before allowing law enforcement access to patient areas, with narrow exceptions for hospital-initiated safety responses.​

The law also grants patients significant privacy protections. Individuals must be informed of their rights to request amendments to medical records, including the ability to request deletion or redaction of immigration-related information, place of birth, or documents like passports and employment authorization papers. Patient information can only be released to law enforcement in strict accordance with federal privacy laws like HIPAA, and only upon valid federal judicial warrants, orders, or subpoenas for immigration enforcement purposes.​

Hospitals face potential fines up to $500 per day for failure to submit required policies.

Public universities and community colleges must develop law enforcement review procedures by January 1, 2026, including protocols for documenting interactions and seeking employee and student consent before allowing immigration enforcement access on campus. Schools are prohibited from threatening to disclose or knowingly disclosing immigration status information of students, employees, or their associates without consent.​

Schools cannot designate immigration status, citizenship, place of birth, nationality, or national origin as directory information, and must provide students and employees access to know-your-rights training and materials. Aggrieved parties can bring civil lawsuits for willful violations, with prevailing parties recovering attorney fees and costs.

Licensed day care centers must adopt immigration-related policies by January 1, 2026, prohibiting disclosure of children’s or families’ immigration status information unless required by law. If a child’s parent or guardian faces immigration enforcement action, centers must use emergency contact procedures and honor properly executed short-term guardian appointment forms to ensure child safety.

The legislation amends the Illinois Whistleblower Act to expand protections for employees who report violations of the Illinois Bivens Act. Employers cannot retaliate against workers by contacting or threatening to contact immigration authorities or reporting an employee’s suspected immigration status to any agency.

The bill does preserve the existing qualified immunity defenses for government employees, including police officers, peace officers, and personnel within the court system, as long as they are acting lawfully in the course of their duties. This means that the amendment maintains protections against civil liability for these public officials when performing actions that are within the bounds of legality and their official responsibilities. 

Upon Governor Pritzker’s signature, the legislation takes effect immediately.