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Rolando Perez Samayoa came to Illinois in 2023 in search of safety. The state's TRUST Act keeps local law enforcement out of federal deportation efforts. But after a DUI arrest last October, ICE descended upon Samayoa and his 17-year-old son.

Dozens of emails reviewed by the nonprofit newsroom Injustice Watch reveal a pattern of consequential collaboration between county prosecutors and federal immigration agencies across Illinois during the first 15 months of Trump’s second term.

State’s attorneys’ offices shared sensitive personal data about the people they were prosecuting without criminal warrants, public disclosure, or legislative oversight. People flagged to ICE were detained and deported, tearing families apart.

Sometimes, prosecutors volunteered information on their own. Other times, they simply answered DHS agents’ enquiries. The collaboration typically happened without the knowledge of defendants or their attorneys.

The TRUST Act bars police and other agencies from helping federal agents deport people absent a federal criminal warrant. But the law doesn’t squarely answer whether prosecutors and their staff are bound by those same restrictions.

Injustice Watch filed FOIA requests with all 102 Illinois state’s attorney’s offices and drew on records from federal and circuit courts. Eleven offices didn’t respond; some produced records only after they were sued. The rest remain in litigation.

WIRED has made this article free for all to read because it is primarily based on reporting from Freedom of Information Act requests. Read the full story: www.wired.com/story/the-co...