Gov. JB Pritzker has signed into law a bill banning Homeland Security agents from arresting people in or near daycare centers, hospitals, colleges or courthouses who are suspected of being in the country illegally.

Had the law been in place sooner, the November arrest of an Elgin man and the April arrest of a Schaumburg man in the McHenry County courthouse parking lot would have been illegal.

And the agents who arrested them could have been sued $10,000, according to House Bill 1312.

On the morning of Nov. 5, Alex Ordonez, 33, appeared in McHenry County court for an arraignment on felony forgery charges. He was accused of stealing more than $5,000 from a Marengo couple by forging their names on checks drawn on their bank account, according to the criminal complaint.

When Ordonez entered his van after leaving court, witnesses said agents wearing masks pulled up in three separate, unmarked vehicles. They approached the driver’s side of the van and yelled at Ordonez to exit, saying they had a warrant for his arrest. When he did not follow their commands, the agents shattered the driver’s side glass and removed him from the vehicle, witnesses said.

They then drove off with Ordonez, and a woman who was with Ordonez was left behind, wounded by the shattered glass and “hysterical,” attorney Kellie Kleitsch, who witnessed the incident, said. The woman said she did not see any warrant or papers in the agents’ hands, Kleitsch said.

Witnesses referred to the scene as a “smash-and-grab.”

Attempts to reach Ordonez’s attorney have not been successful.

In April, Boguslaw S. Matlak, of Schaumburg, also was taken from the courthouse parking lot and into custody by ICE agents, his attorney Stavri Vako said. Matlak was taken “immediately following his court appearance,” according to a motion Matlak wrote explaining to the court why he is unable to attend his court proceedings. Matlak is charged in three separate cases with retail theft, court records show.

In June, he was “involuntarily deported” to his home country of Poland, according to the motion in which Matlak said he was deported by the federal government and wanted to dismiss his case.

The new law, called the Bivens Act, says it is illegal to make a civil arrest in or within 1,000 feet of a courthouse, including parking lots, sidewalks and streets.

The law makes it illegal to subject “Illinois residents to arrest for civil noncriminal matters while attending, [or] attempting to attend” a court proceeding.

It further states that, as in Ordonez’s and Matlak’s cases, it would be illegal to arrest a person after they have attended “State court proceedings as parties, witnesses, potential witnesses or court companions while otherwise accompanying a person who is a party witness or potential witness [because it] threatens the fair administration of justice in this State.”

The administration of President Donald Trump has justified its immigration enforcement tactics by arguing that they’re rooting out people who have committed crimes and are in the country illegally.

In a news release, Pritzker called the recent rash of arrests enforced by the Trump administration “lawless and aggressive.”

“With my signature today, we are protecting people and institutions that belong here in Illinois. Dropping your kid off at day care, going to the doctor, or attending your classes should not be a life-altering task,” Pritzker said.

Local attorney and private investigator Martin Coonen of McHenry said that instilling fear in undocumented people of going to court – whether as a witness, a defendant or someone who is a victim of a violent act or who wants help filing for an order of protection – “hurts justice for all of us.” Coonen said he came out of retirement for the sole purpose of helping people targeted by Homeland Security.

“You have to have a process that respects basic human dignity, and that process isn’t dragging people out of their cars and into unmarked vans and taking them to undisclosed places,” said Coonen, a U.S. Navy veteran who also served in the Peace Corps. “In this guy’s case, we don’t know where he is.”

Coonen said he understands taxpayers who say it’s better to just deport an undocumented citizen who broke a local law and not spend any tax dollars prosecuting or incarcerating them. And, Coonen asserts, he is not saying an undocumented person who broke the law should be set free.

What he is saying is that defendants should have the right to go through the judicial process. If convicted, sentence them to a lesser sentence then “turn [them] over to deportation.” But “trolling around schools and day cares” is not the way to do this, Coonen said.

Coonen said agents are “racial profiling,” grabbing people off the streets and putting fear in people who came to this country to work. The environment also hurts businesses – roofing and landscaping companies, restaurants and resorts – who are losing their employee pool.

He also prepares “guardianship papers” for undocumented people with young children who fear being arrested by Homeland Security while at work. Guardianship papers allow undocumented immigrants to appoint a trusted adult to care for their children if they are detained or deported.