>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Illinois and Chicago are suing the Trump administration over its immigration enforcement tactics.

A new report by the Illinois Attorney General show.

Some sheriff's offices are ignoring the state's sanctuary laws.

>> We were treated as subjects to ain't going to transpire turn.

>> A husband who has health issues is being detained.

His wife spite to get him released.

Budget worries federal funding cuts and affordability are top of mind for Illinois lawmakers as they head back to Springfield this week.

>> someone told you who you got >> And a south side native become Chicago's next laureate.

>> First off tonight, the state of Illinois and City of Chicago are suing the Department of Homeland Security directly over Operation Midway Blitz.

>> These Border Patrol agents and ICE officers have acted as occupiers rather than officers of the law as they have rampaged through the Chicago area.

Are particularly interrogating and resting residents and attacking them with chemical weapons.

>> Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced the lawsuit today claiming the Trump administration is, quote, menacing, violent and unlawful incursion against the state sovereignty.

The U.S.

violating the 10th Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act.

The sweeping 103 page lawsuit seeks a federal order.

Stopping federal immigration agents in Illinois from using unlawful tactics, including they say the use of tear gas and other chemical weapons against people who are resisting.

>> Scanning residents, biometric information and entering private property without a warrant or permission.

In a statement, DHS calls the lawsuit, quote, baseless and says the department looks forward to proving that in court.

The number of fatal shootings on Illinois interstates fell to 0 last year for the first time in about a decade.

Illinois State police say the number of interstate shootings have dropped for the 4th consecutive year down.

31% in 2025.

Compared to 2024. and down 80% compared to a post pandemic spike in 2021. officials credit the use of air operations and automated license plate readers in helping identify and track those suspected of committing crime as well as reducing crashes.

Illinois residents looking for health insurance on the state's marketplace.

Have a couple more weeks to sign up the state's official health insurance marketplace.

Get covered.

Illinois is extending the enrollment period and says customers now have until January 31st to apply for coverage.

That coverage would begin February 1st, millions across the country of seeing their health insurance premiums spike after Congress failed to extend Affordable Care Act.

Tax credits that expired at the end of 2025. last week the House took the issue back up and passed a plan to extend the subsidies.

But its fate in the Senate is still unclear.

Meanwhile, Illinois officials say there are free resources that can help with the enrollment process.

There's more information on that on our website.

A new report finds some Illinois sheriff's offices have ignored state sanctuary laws explain how right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> Illinois law generally prohibits local law enforcement from transferring people into federal immigration custody.

Despite that, a new report from the attorney general's office shows for Illinois Sheriff's offices defied the state's sanctuary laws.

Our reporter Blair Paddock joins us now with more Blair.

What are the reports say?

These sheriffs offices they defined the states in trail lives in 2 ways.

First of all, local law enforcement is not supposed to comply with civil immigration warrants or immigration detainers and then they're not supposed to transfer people into DHS custody unless they're presented with a federal criminal warrant or otherwise specified federal law and these 4 counties.

Madison, Grundy, Jefferson and King counties did just those 2 things in the transfer.

24 people into DHS custody after receiving either a civil immigration warrant or an immigration detainer in 2024.

Head of the sheriff's of those 4 counties respond.

King County responded to me said that if they received a federal criminal warrant signed by judge.

They have to do that and they But the thing is that like in their self reported data to the a G they said that they complied with a civil immigration detainer or a civil immigration warrant.

Those 2 documents are not signed by a judge there signed by immigration officers.

And when I brought this up to the King County sheriff, he said that he wasn't immediately aware of the 2 instances mentioned in report were any other ways that local law enforcement was found non compliant with sanctuary laws?

Yeah.

And so the local law enforcement agencies in the state have to submit their compliance data to the AG yearly.

If they don't, AG can seek legal remedies because they'll be in violation of the state About 824 of 960 law enforcement agencies responded to the a G's yearly report.

So I asked the AG about those chunk of folks that didn't respond to see if they sought legal remedy.

What was up with?

I didn't I didn't hear anything from K. Hopefully we will hear from Blair Paddock, thank you for joining us.

And you can read letters full story on our website is all at W T Tw Dot com Slash news.

Being dragged from their car in freezing temperatures is what one woman says she and her husband endured late last month.

Now she's fighting to bring her medically compromised, has been home after they were both detained by U.S.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are Joanna Hernandez spoke with the family and their legal team.

>> On that one going up with at the Knapp on that.

>> That that out if they die in the Senate Bill Sunday see act comes with a of them.

Want though, say you're looking live now.

It now 11, >> I a total federal family Nest wife says she's still shaken after her encounter with ICE agents on December 29th to protect identity.

We are not showing her face on camera are using her name I-78 and that the federal know they went, they spent a month one of >> And momentum that on this my mind.

>> She says it happened in an instant on the late December morning as her husband was getting ready to take her to Their car was surrounded by ICE agents.

Agents pulled them out, restrain them and took them into custody later transporting them to the broad view, detention center music.

it's been mobile him.

But I >> can what they did in the system, but I'm gonna lie at the time.

no one available to loan.

You're not Manana.

>> The family's attorney says agents were trying to pressure the mother of 3 to sign a form move.

They say aimed at deporting the entire family.

Just presented documents in English, basically the officer had called involuntary departures, voluntary deportation returned while obeyed.

wife was released the same day.

He remains in custody.

She says her husband suffers from a severe seizure disorder requiring medication twice a day and missing.

Even one dose could be fatal.

Attorneys quickly stepped in to file a humanitarian request to make sure he receives his medication and have been released.

He was a teen around 06:00AM on Monday.

From what I understand, he was not administered medication until Tuesday Angelica showers it because one of the attorneys working on the case for young family with minor children who is Cheney, Lee doing their best and and they got their work permits and are working for them to then.

Have to suffer.

There's something so traumatic and horrific.

That in and of itself is heartbreaking to me.

don't know better.

Ultimately nice currently in the facility in Indiana Jones >> Looked in every >> and went it.

And they will begin do.

>> They sought asylum in the U.S.

nearly a year ago after leaving Venezuela.

She says they waited at the border for an immigration appointment.

The family was eventually bus to Chicago where they spent 6 months in a city shelter before moving into their own home.

We could fund out nowhere matter.

then my >> key the but then big K and I said I'm can come because if I don't point.

>> Said that the number locals, the federal money, Mike.

>> His attorney says the battle has no criminal history and has filed a habeas corpus petition in Indiana arguing he's being unlawfully held.

We're talking about children cool.

Who have no idea.

Why their father is being treated the way that he's treated, knowing he's detained and facing serious health concerns.

His wife says his chronic illness keeps her up at make a more diligently since bountiful could put you on that, >> To the high at the end with the president that good purpose people's 70, 3 come be >> Attorney showers acts as a habeas corpus petition can take anywhere from a few weeks to months.

I will.

Temps is a he's not the only one.

There are so many other families and in the same exact situation who are suffering silently.

For Chicago tonight.

I'm joined on this.

Btw news reached out to the Department of Homeland Security seeking clarification on Better those arrests but have not yet received a response.

>> Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield ahead of the spring legislative session and are facing some tough realities.

A 2.2 billion dollar budget gap growing pressure to deliver affordability relief and a widening financial rift with Washington.

Joining us now from Springfield to help break it down is Capitol News.

Illinois State House reporter Ben Zelensky been welcome back.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So despite a state revenue increase of 5% compared to fiscal year 2025, the state is still facing, as we said, that 2.2 billion dollar budget shortfall heading into the new fiscal year.

How lawmakers explain that shortfall.

>> Yeah, it's exactly uncommon for the state could be facing a deficit like that going into new fiscal year.

Those projections are really based current state law.

So assuming there's no changes to the state's taxing policies that state spending policies, the lawmakers are required to pass a constitutional, balanced budget.

So we do expect there's going to be a proposal that is unveiled by the governor in February.

That is going to address backlog.

So exactly how that's going to be done.

Still kind of remains to be seen.

But I think lawmakers are really looking at this as it's the federal government's fault.

The federal government and Congress has taken money away from the state of Illinois.

There's been new mandates on the state of Illinois.

And, you know, the state has to come up with the money to fill that gap while maintaining their current priorities.

>> Ok, so you mentioned some of those costs that the state is going to have to start absorbing that were previously handled by the federal government.

There is Medicaid, of Governor Pritzker's budget office projects that federal changes to the provider tax program will cut federal Medicaid support to Illinois by 2.8 billion dollars annually by 2031.

That's resulting in an additional 1.7 billion dollar liability for the state and the Trump administration also shifting more financial responsibility to the states for SNAP benefits for Illinois.

That amounts to 80 million dollars a year.

How are these extra expenses?

These additional expenses been going to complicate the budget?

>> Yeah, it's going to get extremely lawmakers and in those billion dollar costs for health care.

Just things the state cannot make hardly any state.

It really has the capability to raised revenue like that and continue to cover existing services while adding on a whole bunch of new people and health care.

So this is going to be a huge challenge for the state to figure out really what the priorities are.

How many people does the state want to absorb on to health care plans?

How many people, you know, as the state can be able to add on to staff, for example.

So, you know, lawmakers are really gonna have to make choices based what is their priorities for spending, how far they're willing to go on tax increases.

For example, and those choices are really going to have to come soon as some of these changes start coming into play in the next couple of years.

>> You did speak with House Speaker Chris Welch today actually give us a sense of his priorities heading into the session.

>> Yeah, he's really focused this idea of affordability is a major concern for voters.

So Democrats are looking at this as Donald Trump has taken office and he hasn't done enough to improve the economy.

Inflation still remains kind of a persistent issue and people are still just struggling to afford basic needs.

Grocery prices remain high.

So state lawmakers really want to look at ways that they can help lower prices for people, especially in this election year where, you know, if Democrats get to attach their name to that and certainly get a look at the polls in November.

So probably going to see some things.

I'm insurance specifically.

State farm raised homeowners insurance rates of Illinois by more than 20% back in the summer.

And I think lawmakers have been pretty frustrated by that and they want to see more reform and regulation that they believe might be able to help the state keep some of those costs down.

>> Also, it's a midterm election year.

The primary elections in Illinois are in March.

How do you think lawmakers are going to be approaching the session with that in mind?

>> Yeah, I don't really expect a whole lot of business to happen before the March 17th primary.

But I think one of the interesting parts will be is that the governor unveils his budget on February 18th.

So, you know, the governor has to really keep in mind here that lawmakers are going to kind of judged what what he's saying and what he's presenting as a vision for Democrats and 2026 and February address.

So I think lawmakers are really going to kind of stay hands off on their own legislation for the most part.

But then the governor is probably and present a budget that is something that voters can stomach.

There's not gonna be huge tax increases or anything, for example.

So I think you're going to see a lot of quiet from Springfield for the next couple of months until that primary election passes by.

>> I mentioned that also means that there's a lot of work to get done after that primary election and they've compress their own timeline.

>> Exactly.

we're going to see a lot, I think, from Springfield this year, especially on the psyche 40 billion I mentioned.

But the budget takes so much time.

And if you know, lawmakers aren't really digging into that in a major way until April.

For example, I think there's going to be a lot of last minute conversations about our taxes and spending priorities and, you know, that's where the negotiations get really hard.

>> particular affordability measures that you think will be under consideration when the time comes.

>> Yeah, I think the on the issue of insurance, I think energy is still going to be something that lawmakers are looking at.

The governor signed a bill that state lawmakers are hoping it's going to bring energy prices down in next several years.

The son that last week, but one of the issues we still see in the state is data centers are eating up a lot of the energy supply.

The state still doesn't really have enough supply in the coming years to meet this demand for energy.

That's driving prices up.

And I think lawmakers really still haven't found a good way to truly address that.

So I think that's going to be part of this affordability agenda.

As far as bringing prices down for utility costs.

Lot of issues for voters and reporters to stay on top of Ben Zelensky.

Thank you so much for joining us.

>> Thank you.

Grant us.

Up next, meet Chicago's new poet laureate.

>> Chicago >> has a new poet laureate.

My the Alexander, though, by is a poet, educator and interdisciplinary artist born and raised on the city's south side.

Chicago's second poet laureate might've will commission new works in create public programming.

The poet laureate who receive $70,000 over a two-year term also serves as an ambassador for the city's literary and creative communities.

Joining us now is the Chicago poet laureate herself.

Might Alexander go value.

Congratulations.

Thank you for joining Thank you for having me.

So born and raised on the South side, how do you think your identity and being raised in Chicago influenced your approach to writing poetry Gosh, it's so much at the center of my work and >> so much of what I I write about is about that.

You I think growing up Puerto Rican on, you know, the first generation born here.

My mom and dad came when when they were very young and usually what we hear about the Puerto Rican communities is centered in Humble park.

So growing up in the South side is very, very different.

Growing up in a city that's some racially really segregated as well and kind of growing up in a racial middle is is something that, you know, really shaped my perspective in my experiences as well.

The language, the culture, just all the things that I would grow up, you know, seeing and hearing my household on a daily basis really shaped my writing in there at the center of area.

And I listen to a little bit of your work as well because, you know, you also sort of identify sort for Latino, right and acknowledging the African roots that are tonight.

Yeah, being part of the desk a yeah.

Definitely.

After a descendant and >> and acknowledging those routes and try to be aware of them.

And, you know, also aware of the privilege that I that I carry as well.

But that's that's part of what's in my work hard.

he was well, yeah, second person to be named the city's poet laureate.

What does it mean to you and how do you plan on using the position?

gosh, I really hope to just >> steward poetry and into the city known to be of service to the city continue the work that Avery Young started.

He created some amazing program.

So >> I really hope to continue some of the work that he started in terms of taking poetry out to the city of having opportunities for people to come together and write together about their experiences.

Their stories in the city working together with the public library is also really exciting.

That was a, you know, really important to me as a as a young writer and growing up the library was somewhere that I was went 2 for as kind of like a refuge and to just find books that I you know what to swallow them up every weekend.

So I'm really excited about supporting their programming and creating some of my own as well.

Where would you say you get some of your your performance style last year's eve there?

A lot of different people.

I was talking to someone about that earlier today.

I would say.

>> I grew as a child of of the hip-hop generation in the 90's.

So that really in Chicago.

So that is yeah, there's specific very specific.

Also works into mice.

That you know, growing up listening to some some music, 70 salsa music, Sonia Sanchez, I'm a Barack a summit.

yes, that is the new year weekend poets from from that movement in New York City as well.

So Williams is someone else that influenced a lot of people and that area of port trees.

So I think that's, you know, also an influence from ISIS.

Lot of fingerprints.

I guess you could say my work.

Yeah.

Just a minute ago, we're looking at second ago.

We're looking at you performing on Poetry Jam.

I got in the day.

Yeah.

So what do you think?

Makes Chicago's poetry scene unique compared to like other big cities, New York l a we've also live.

Yeah, you know, I we don't always get credit for for the things that we create, you know, and for how are really incubator for.

>> A lot of different artists.

I think we're in a unique position.

We're PM people can come to Chicago and they can kind of experiment and play with style and be influenced by the different things in the city.

You know, where the home of the poetry slam the plan was created here in Chicago.

Other cities get credit for kind of, you know, making a little bit bigger.

But it was born here in Chicago.

I think, you know, we have we come from a city that has a literary tradition that's really rooted everyday working people.

>> Expressing their thoughts, opinions and stories.

I think that's really like at the heart of Chicago's lit scene.

So I'm really proud to represent >> Among your accomplishments, he performed at the Obama White House invitation of former president and former first lady.

What was that like for It was pretty amazing my I was pretty blown away by, you know, getting the invitation.

But I think, though, the coolest part of that night was being able to take my mom and me and the palm that I read was about my grandmother and her mom.

And, you know, there was a grandmother living in the White House at that at that time.

So that was Robinson was still yes, yes, we >> So it was really poignant and really moving to be able to 2 read that poem about my grandmother.

And, you know, have the first lady there sitting next to her mom daughters.

generations represented there.

You know.

So that was I think that was like the most.

Very important part.

Yeah, especially You've got your first event as poet laureate this week Wednesday.

Yes.

What can people expect I'm going to be reading some new work own that I created this part of my residency through elastic arts.

So the work is about being Puerto Rican, Chicago surprise of having to have some musical accompaniment as well.

Just going to kind of show the range things that I do and really excited to have Chicago in the House and and say hi to everybody.

Yeah, What think poetry still so relevant.

I think.

>> At this particular moment in time.

I've always taught us about poetry.

I think that poetry is one of the few art forms with people a certain level of truth and honesty in their from the writer and poetry also demands truth honesty from that listen to it right at the man's is to to thank about how we feel about, you know, the things that come up for But it's also it's a time when we need people to to tell the truth and to to speak the truth about the things that we're seeing, the things that are happening in the world and, you know, Chicago winds, we've seen a lot these last couple of months.

so I think that it's it's an art form that we really need at this time to demand truth about the way that we're feeling in the world and what we can hope to create in the future.

And the city has a new poet laureate to deliver Congrats again tonight ago by a thank you so much for joining Thank you having me.

Of course.

>> And my to Alexander Go first event as Chicago poet laureate will take place this Wednesday evening from 6 to 7.30, at the Chicago Cultural Center.

>> You can find a link to RSVP on our website.

And we're back to wrap things up right after this.

>> Reflecting the people perspectives that make can This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Not the >> And that's our show for this Monday night.

Be sure to sign up for our free email newsletter.

The Daily Chicago in it W t Tw Dot Com Slash newsletter and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10, Illinois may be facing electricity shortages and soaring bills in the future.

A new report is warning our AI data centers to blame.

Now for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe.

A day.

>> Closed caption made possible.

Why Robert, a cliff and Clifford a Chicago