A group of St. Charles residents said they plan to ask the City Council on Monday to declare city-owned property off limits to federal immigration enforcement agents.

The group said they plan to speak during public comment at the City Council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at city hall, 2 E. Main St., according to a news release. The release states the group is made up of residents, business owners, community leaders, educators and students.

Neighboring towns of Elgin, Aurora and Batavia among others, along with the city of Chicago have undertaken similar decisions, passing resolutions to prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from being able to use certain public-owned property during raids.

“St. Charles residents want to live in a community that stands up for its residents, business owners and neighbors,” the release states.

The group argues that ICE has been active in the area but the City Council has remained silent so far.

ICE active in St. Charles, police say

The St. Charles Police Department earlier this month confirmed an ICE-related incident occurred in the city on Nov. 10.

Police responded to an inquiry from Rev. Tara Dix Osborne of the Episcopal Church, who asked why a man and his teenage son were taken by ICE from outside their home on Walnut Street in St. Charles and then allegedly were taken to the St. Charles Police Department.

Police Chief Daniel Likens responded to Osborne via email, confirming that federal law enforcement was involved in the incident on Walnut Street in St. Charles.

“St. Charles Police was not involved with that operation and had no knowledge of that operation,” Likens said.

Across Illinois, local law enforcement is banned from assisting or participating in civil immigration enforcement under the state’s TRUST Act, signed into law in 2017 by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Osborne questioned if the Nov. 10 incident, documented by the Elgin Response Network, an organization monitoring ICE activity in the area, involved cooperation with ICE and local police.

“Federal law enforcement contacted the St. Charles Police to report a traffic crash in-person at the police department,” Likens wrote in the email. “They were in a public entry point. No other subjects were brought inside the police department, and the federal officer left the police department prior to an officer arriving on scene.”

Just a few days before the incident, the police department posted on its Facebook page that the department “fully complies” with the Illinois TRUST Act and that its “officers do not conduct immigration-related investigations, do not participate in arrests and do not receive advance notice of federal operations.”

In Likens’ email response to Osborne, he continued, “The St. Charles Police will continue to follow the Illinois TRUST Act and in no way participate in federal civil immigration enforcement.”

According to Osborne’s original email detailing the Nov. 10 incident, “The teenage son reports that he and his father were brought to a police station for interrogation.”

On Elgin Response Network’s Facebook page, the post says after they were “interrogated,” the “son was let go but the dad was taken.”

ICE’s ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ trickles into suburbs

Since the Trump Administration launched “Operation Midway Blitz,” more than 1,500 immigrants living in the Chicago area without legal permission have been arrested, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In past weeks, ICE agents have been a frequent presence outside the Kane County Courthouse, making several arrests.

Recent studies show only 16% of ICE detainees have any criminal history. Less than 7% are “labeled as the most serious threat concern in the ICE database,” according to NBC 5 Chicago.

On its website, the St. Charles Police Department declares "No person will be denied police services or any other benefit based on their immigration status.”

The TRUST Act prohibits local police from detaining individuals without a judicial warrant. This provision is included to help “uphold due process.”

A judicial warrant has to be signed by a judge and must go through due process. But some advocacy groups have claimed ICE agents have detained people without warrants or with an “administrative warrant.”

Members of immigrant advocacy group DeKalb Area Rapid Response Team – which also operates in Kane County – said they’ve seen ICE agents using administrative warrants that don’t have a judge’s signature or name a specific person meant for arrest.

While both warrants can be used by ICE for arrests, only a judicial warrant enables access to a home or a nonpublic area, such as a business. A person can refuse entry to ICE into their home or car if ICE only has an administrative warrant.

According to the St. Charles Police Department, the TRUST Act prohibits local officers from inquiring about an individual’s immigration status during routine interactions, such as traffic stops.

Local police are also prohibited from proactively notifying ICE of the arrest of an undocumented person absent a federal criminal warrant or a federal judicial determination of probable cause.

Last month, an officer with the Elgin Police Department, Jason Lentz, was placed on administrative leave after he posted on social media several locations in the community that ICE agents could find immigrants to raid.

ICE’s presence outside the Kane County Courthouse is expected to cease for a while as Illinois House Bill 1312, prohibiting civil immigration arrests inside and within 1,000 feet of state courthouses, passed both chambers on Oct. 31 and was sent to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.

The bill mandates that all violators will incur statutory damages of $10,000 for each incident.

The bill also enables Illinois residents to sue immigration agents who violate their constitutional right to due process and protects residents from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The legislation is certain to face legal challenges from the Trump Administration concerning the “supremacy clause” of the Constitution, dictating that state laws cannot supersede federal ones.

Within House Bill 1312, punitive damages can be increased if agents are wearing masks, concealing their identity, failing to wear a body camera or using a vehicle with non-Illinois or obscured license plates.