By: Mark Glennon*
One immigrant group expressly included for eligibility to become police officers under Illinois’ new law are DACAs — immigrants who are here under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
However, the law also expressly requires applicants to be authorized under federal law to obtain, carry, purchase or otherwise possess a firearm.
But DACAs cannot possess firearms or ammunition. Federal law prohibits it. Colorado is facing the same obstacle with a law similar to Illinois’ so it’s trying to get a waiver or amendment to the federal law.
So, what the law gave with one hand it took away with another. It’s political posturing through double-talk, stoking political and racial division.
One supposed workaround to the gun obstacle has been reported in Blue Island, where a DACA is a police recruit who would not be allowed to take his gun home, but it’s hard to see how that can work out. The federal prohibition includes no exemption for police work and off-duty cops need guns.
Gov. JB Pritzker bristled this week about claims that the law allows “illegal” immigrants to become police. He said the law’s “right wing” critics are “saying that we’re allowing illegal, illegal immigrants is the word that they would use…. I am tired of the right wing twisting these things. They put it out on Facebook, they tell lies.”
In fact, however, DACAs are illegal immigrants. They are protected from deportation for now under a deferred immigration action program, but “the program does not grant them official legal status [emphasis added],” as Newsweek explained in a fact check. “Deferred action does not confer any lawful immigration status,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And the whole deferred action program is in legal limbo. As Newsweek explained, a U.S. appellate court in October 2022 declared the program “unlawful.”
DACAS are those who entered the country as minors. Perhaps you feel they deserve particular compassion and help, as I do, and think what you want about the merits of the new law, but that doesn’t change the fact that DACAs are here illegally under immigration law.
Pritzker went on to explain the law more accurately, which is to say with the same-double talk that’s in the law. “What we have allowed is legal permanent residents and DACA recipients now to become police officers [emphasis added],” he said. “So we have the ability for people who are legally in this country, and again, permanent residents or DACA recipients now to apply for jobs as police officers.”
No, DACA recipients cannot be eligible because of the gun possession ban. And if there is some workaround to that available, then it is true that “illegal” immigrants — DACAs — are eligible to become police under the new law.
The same two-faced issue in the new law appears to apply to many noncitizen asylum seekers in the U.S. They are not named specifically as being eligible to become a cop in the new law, but they can hold work permits under certain conditions, which makes them eligible at one level. However, they, too, cannot possess firearms, making them ineligible.
It should be noted that some immigrants who clearly are not illegal are covered by the bill. Most importantly, that includes green card holders, who have permanent residency status. There are over 12 million of them in America.
It should also be noted that the new law passed with significant bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
This column was updated to add the paragraph regarding asylum seekers.
Relevant portion of new law:
The sheriff of any county or the corporate authorities of any municipality may authorize, empower, employ, or permit a person to act as deputy sheriff or special policeman for the purpose of preserving the peace, who is not a citizen of the United States, who is legally authorized under federal law to work in the United States and is authorized under federal law to obtain, carry, or purchase or otherwise possess a firearm, or who is an individual against whom immigration action has been deferred by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process and is authorized under federal law to obtain, carry, or purchase or otherwise possess a firearm.
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Audio and summary
The US is becoming a plutocracy — that is a government for the wealthy. Ultra-rich progressives are pushing their social agenda onto the middle class.
About 30-40 years ago, Chicago Police Department was being infiltrated by gangs.
To combat the problem CPD raised the entrance level to 23 years old and required 60 college credit hours. Once things were under control they reduced the application age to 21, but maintained the 60 credit hour requirement. PLUS you had to be a U.S. citizen.
Now members of MS13 and any other gang can start infiltrating again. And I’m sure the governor will soon mandate no college credit needed. He has no idea the tragedy he is unleashing between this ridiculous new law AND no bail.
We’ve seen evidence of AA police hires as in the four black LEOs that beat up a black motorist. Strangely, the Shaptons and Jessies were silent on that one. Perhaps they are in cahoots with the whole scenario and see a sacrificial lamb or two as a means to an end. As one person pointed out, let’s see what happens when our “ guest “ LEOs try and enforce law and order in non- white residential areas.
Pritzker is really trying to “twist” the laws and the situation so it works for his needs. As per usual, laws mean nothing to Democrats. Their goal in life is to work around the law, rewrite it or just dump it. This is not new. Here we go again. He better be careful because I can already feel legal gun owners gearing up to fight this.
All purposeful and intentional in order to destabilize the country. There are not hiding their destructive agenda anymore, it’s all in the open for everyone to see. Those who believe this wicked ideology are of all types and every race, color and creed. This is why they need to manipulate the weak minded. The weak minded are their soldiers who will blindly follow orders, they are pouring across the border as we speak. I hope that everyone here is watching this very closely. If you internally destabilize us from within you might be able to take over this country without… Read more »
Can’t wait to get pulled over by a broken English speaking “ officer “ . Upon his lack of proof of legal citizenship, I will drive off to the nearest courthouse and find out how someone not legally in this country became a LEO. Part of the plan to install a government friendly police force by driving the old timers out and making the “ reimagined “ one into an entity of illegals beholden to the overlords.
HAD ENOUGH OF THE DEM DESTRUCTION OF ILL YET???
How about it, all all Democrats masochists?
Unfortunately, “fact of law” doesn’t garner much respect anymore by our politicians. We are living in an “Alice in Wonderland” scenario of “up is down”, “right is wrong”, where the lawbreaker is consistently identified as “victim of racism” unless a white cisgender male.
When “rule of law” no longer has consistent application, society breaks down. Witness San Francisco, LA, Portland, Seattle, here in Chicago, et al. Petty theft is excused, misdemeanors ignored, undocumented immigrants embraced and entitled with extraordinary legal privileges, but crime accelerates.
We can put an end to it by pointing out their lies and circulating easy to digest facts. They can only get away with it if they have a monopoly on communication. Don’t let them convince you that nobody is on your side and that they’re in the majority, because it’s also a huge lie.
It’s really fun busting them. It’s not hard either. Here’s the DACA ruling Mark mentioned. It does a great job telling the story.
https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/21/21-40680-CV0.pdf
It all makes sense when you accept that they want to live this way. You may not want to, for sure, but they do.
Modern day Goths and Vandals…..
The only help DACA people deserve is getting their exit out of this country. They’re illegals and I have no special use of them. Get them out!!
John, I disagree. DACAs were brought here when they were minors and this is the only home they know. America needs comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path for DACAs to some form of normalization.
So if my parents rob a bank, can I still keep the money?
Good analogy, David.
Also disagree. Visit any Texas border town and this is a strategy and loophole which has been taken advantage of for years. Waiting rooms in hospitals on the Texas side are filled with women of child rearing age who have the stated goal to have that baby on the Texas side for birthright citizenship. There are stories of women sleeping in cars in shopping mall parking lots waiting for their water to break and then deliver the baby on this side of the Rio Grande. All of us are numb to the fact that we are being taken advantage of.… Read more »
Fair points by you and David above. I should have been more specific in that, as I see it, not all DACAs should be treated the same, and my view of normalizing them is limited, though that all gets complex.
DACA’s already have a home. It’s called Mexico. They have citizenship there. All they have to do is just show up! Doesn’t matter that America is all they’ve ever known. They could go back to Mexico, get a job, have a work authorization, and probably do quite well, with an American education, fluent in English and Spanish. They should be thankful they had a chance to grow up here on the American Taxpayer’s Dime!
The babies born in the scenarios you describe are not DACA. They are U.S. citizens, having been born here. That is a separate issue.
DACAs are people who were brought here illegally as children, but have lived here most of their lives. Many have no knowledge or memory of the country from which their parents came. Their parents broke the law, not the children.
But, they have citizenship of another country. That other country is Mexico. That’s where they belong, that’s where they are citizens of. They don’t belong in America, even if ‘it’s unfair that their parents brought them here’. It makes no difference, zero, to me whatsoever that ‘this is all they’ve ever known’. I’m even less than totally indifferent to their plight – I want them to leave immediately. I’d deport millions of them if I could. And now, they have the best opportunity to return home, to their home country, where they have citizenship and a passport and they can… Read more »
There are many topics on which we agree. I can’t go with you on this one. I agree with Mark- this is more complex than just a simple deport them all immediately.
I would agree that it is more complex but Mexico is a defacto narco state more than likely controlled by the cartels. Plata or Plomo, Silver or Lead, is the choice government officials are given probably at great risk to their families (their families will disappear) if they refuse to cooperate. I see it as a national security issue, a terrorism issue, and it is suicide to leave the border open. It isn’t about picking fruit and farming anymore. A price of 1 kilo of cocaine in the US is more than avocados. Because we have thieves in the administration… Read more »
One more example of how crooked corrupt IL Democrats prioritize illegal aliens and asylum fraudsters over Illinois citizens
Excellent article. But as stated, what was the purpose of this law? To create division. This is the Obama playbook. I am sick of it.
100% right on.
Does anybody think that Pritzger or his adoring followers care about laws? Only if those laws are convenient for them, just like free speech. If it’s their free speech okay but it’s for someone who disagrees with them, no, no! Democrats creating one disaster after another.
THEY CREATE DIASTER’S SO THEY CAN SOLVE THEM
Great article Mark!!! Here’s some supplemental stuff. Here’s the DACA memorandum:https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/s1-exercising-prosecutorial-discretion-individuals-who-came-to-us-as-children.pdf Here’s the pertinent Statute prohibiting illegal aliens from possessing firearms: 18 U.S. Code § 922 (g)(5)(a) It shall be unlawful for any person— who, being an alien— is illegally or unlawfully in the United States; Federal Courts are consistently ruling that illegal aliens are not allowed to possess firearms and that 18 U.S. Code § 922 (g)(5)(a) is unambiguous, even under Bruen. Here’s 20-cr-00613 (N.D. Ill. Dec. 19, 2022), holding that 18 U.S.C. 922 (g)(5)(a) is unambiguous. https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-carbajal-flores-1 No Illinois resident is allowed to possess a hand gun in… Read more »