Chicago city clerk Anna Valencia suspended the online application method of obtaining CityKey IDs after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent a subpoena to her office for the information of applicants.
As the Trump administration continues its efforts to deport an unprecedented wave of illegal immigrants allowed to enter the country during the Biden administration, it faces resistance from local officials. Leaders of particularly Democratic-leaning cities like Chicago are some of the most outspoken about their efforts to protect illegal immigrants from being deported.
Valencia announced Friday that her office would take the CityKey online portal offline, the Chicago Tribune reported. CityKeys are a local government-issued form of ID that is accessible to Chicago residents regardless of their immigration status, gender identity, or criminal history. Her decision to suspend the online application portal occurred after ICE subpoenaed her office for the information provided by noncitizens, in their mission to pursue illegal immigrants.
The Chicago Tribune noted that when the municipal ID program was first introduced in 2017, it was intended to skirt public records law and protect personal information by only processing applications in-person.
However, as the migrant crisis spiked in the subsequent years, the city created an online portal to process applicants; documents that the office is not allowed to destroy under public records law.
Responding to advocates alarmed at the online retention of documents that could be used by ICE, Valencia paused that aspect of the program.
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Author: Dillon B
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