This story was reported and produced by Injustice Watch, a nonprofit newsroom in Chicago that investigates issues of equity and justice in the court system.
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that → report → system
Minutes after Riverton police officer Brad Herzog ran 31-year-old Daniel Torrez Perez’s name through a law enforcement database one night in April 2025, his phone rang.
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phone → run → April
“Every bell and whistle went off,” said Jack Griffin, the agent on the other end of the line.
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Griffin → go → line
Herzog had pulled Torrez over for going 15 miles above the speed limit on a rural two-lane highway just northeast of Springfield, Illinois.
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Herzog → pull → Springfield
Herzog ran Torrez’s name and date of birth on his squad car laptop to confirm his identity.
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Herzog → run → identity
His search tripped a federal alert, and within minutes Griffin was on the line.
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Griffin → trip → line
The exchange was captured on body-worn camera footage obtained by Injustice Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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exchange → capture → request
Torrez had an administrative Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrant, meaning ICE was seeking to arrest him for deportation.
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ICE → have → deportation
His call that night reflects the bureau’s increased role in immigration enforcement in the second Trump administration.
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call → reflect → administration
Under state law, Herzog couldn’t hold Torrez for federal agents.
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Herzog → hold → agents
In 2017, Illinois passed the TRUST Act on the principle that immigration is governed by federal civil law and local police have no business enforcing it.
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police → pass → it
It was a sentiment bipartisan enough that a Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, signed it.
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governor → sign → it
The law limits Illinois law enforcement agencies’ ability to assist immigration agents: They can’t transfer people to ICE custody without a criminal warrant signed by a judge, allow ICE agents to call or visit someone in a local jail, or “assist in any capacity with an immigration agents’ enforcement operations.”
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agents → limit → operations
Griffin knew that the immigration warrant was off-limits to Herzog.
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warrant → know → Herzog
“I know you can’t act on that,” Griffin told him.
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Griffin → know → him
“I know this puts you in a weird bind.”
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this → know → bind
Then the FBI agent offered a way around it: Torrez also had an outstanding state warrant on a DUI charge, he noted.
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he → offer → charge
Herzog couldn’t arrest Torrez on the immigration warrant, but he could arrest him on the state one.
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he → arrest → one
The charge had nothing to do with immigration, but the outcome Griffin wanted was the same.
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Griffin → have → immigration
“You can take him under the state warrant, and that would hold him overnight,” Griffin said.
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Griffin → take → him
“I don’t wanna miss my opportunity here.”
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I → miss → opportunity
Herzog agreed to arrest Torrez on the state warrant and book him into the local jail, ensuring he wouldn’t be released that night.
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he → agree → jail
“I appreciate that, thank you very much,” Griffin said, adding that he’d look for Torrez the next morning.
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he → appreciate → Torrez
“Sounds good,” Herzog replied.
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Herzog → sound → ?
In the first 15 months following President Donald Trump’s return to office, local officials from at least 75 agencies across Illinois fed information to federal immigration agents, sometimes in apparent violation of state law.
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officials → follow → law
In over a third of Illinois counties, at least one police department, sheriff’s office, or state’s attorney’s office collaborated with federal agents.
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department → collaborate → agents
At least 150 people in Illinois were swept into the immigration system this way, in a state that presented itself as a shield against it.
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that → sweep → it
Injustice Watch’s investigation draws on more than 30 hours of body-worn camera footage, 394 records requests, and more than 100 court filings, as well as conversations with more than 20 people who were flagged, detained, or deported, and more than 50 of their relatives.
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who → draw → relatives
Many would talk only on the condition of anonymity, afraid of retaliation or ashamed of what had happened to them.
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what → talk → them
Illinois’s TRUST Act is one of the strongest laws in the nation meant to protect immigrants and has often been cited as a national model.
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Act → mean → model
More than a dozen states, including New York and California, have similar laws.
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states → include → laws
But the records unearthed in Illinois show a pattern of continued collaboration with federal immigration agencies that raise questions about the limits of such laws:
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that → unearth → laws
Sheriffs honoring ICE detainers the law forbids them to honor.
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law → honor → them
Police departments emailing federal agents the home addresses, employers, and daily whereabouts of people stopped for speeding.
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departments → email → speeding
Officers with a local badge and an ICE email address, sharing immigration data that’s supposed to be off-limits to them.
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that → share → them
Jails releasing people directly to waiting ICE agents, at the federal government’s direction.
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Jails → release → direction
The TRUST Act came with exceptions: Police can act on a federal criminal warrant, volunteer someone’s immigration status, or release an arrest report on request.
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Police → come → request
And it left shared databases untouched — simply running a name through a law enforcement database is enough to trip a federal alert, the way it did the night Torrez was pulled over.
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Torrez → leave → alert
Some agencies refused to turn over records sought through FOIA requests; Injustice Watch is suing more than a dozen local, state, and federal agencies to pry them loose.
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Watch → refuse → them
The true count of people swept up under local-federal collaborations is almost certainly higher, in part because of missing records.
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count → sweep → records
…and 152 more, not listed.
The Aporia
