Mayors from several large cities defended their immigration policies in front of the House Oversight Committee, stating that migrants did not bring a wave of crime to Denver. In Chicago, an Illinois judge ordered landlords to pay $80,000 in damages to former tenants who were threatened with a report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after a dispute in 2020. The landlords, Marco Antonio Contreras and Denise Contreras, were found to have violated the Illinois Immigrant Tenant Protection Act by threatening the tenants, Maria Maltos Escutia and Gabriel Valdez Garcia, based on their immigration status.
The dispute between the landlords and tenants arose when the tenants were moving out of the apartment following a disagreement over rent payments. The Contreras family threatened to call immigration authorities on the tenants, leading to a lawsuit and the subsequent judgment for damages. This case highlights the need for protections for immigrant renters, with only three states – Illinois, California, and Colorado – currently offering explicit protections.
The case in Cook County, Illinois, is the first to be decided under Illinois law and is seen as a deterrent to other landlords engaging in similar conduct. The heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric in the current political climate underscores the importance of legal protections for immigrants and the need for tenants to feel empowered to come forward against abusive landlords. The goal is to ensure that immigrants are treated fairly and protected from discrimination.
