Mayor Brandon Johnson’s executive order directing Chicago police to report ICE violations to prosecutors is illegal, according to Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.
Her finding exposes a dangerous contradiction in the administration’s approach to immigrant protection, says Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) trying to balance his opposition to Johnson and lukewarm support for President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The City Council will vote Feb. 18 on whether the Civilian Office of Police Accountability should investigate whether Chicago police cooperated with ICE — a move the mayor supports.
But Johnson’s separate executive order directs police to report ICE violations to prosecutors, a directive the state’s attorney says violates her office’s independence and may compromise prosecutions.
Lopez says the administration is asking police to do the impossible by following conflicting orders.
“On one hand, you don’t like the police being near ICE, and on the other, you want them to stand right next to them. It’s baffling,” Lopez said.
Lopez said Johnson is being hypocritical by trying to do with the CPD against federal immigration officers what Trump is doing by weaponizing immigration enforcement.
“They’ve almost come full circle to one another,” Lopez said.
Johnson said the executive order seeks to protect Chicago residents from being picked up and detained by ICE and Border Patrol agents.
“With today’s order, we are putting ICE on notice. Chicago will not sit idly by while Trump floods federal agents into our communities and terrorizes our residents,” Johnson said in a press release announcing the order.
Burke’s office acknowledged deep concern about ICE deployment nationally and across the Chicagoland area. She said its actions have caused “chaos, fear and irreversible harm” to Cook County communities.
She also criticized Mayor Johnson’s new order.
“Marking a shift in longstanding practice, the EO explicitly compels law enforcement, at the direction of the Mayor’s Office, to make a referral on felony matters to the Cook County State’s Attorney,” Burke’s office said in a statement to the Southwest News Herald.
Her office said independent investigations into criminal conduct due to lack of federal agency jurisdiction does not occur except in exceedingly restricted and legally narrow conditions.
The office’s protocol involves reviewing evidence presented by law enforcement after an investigation is conducted, the statement said.
“Permitting referrals from outside the scope of law enforcement, may compromise the integrity of a case and undermine due process.”
In a memo to its employees, the state’s attorney’s office called the EO “wholly inappropriate” and said it “jeopardizes our ability to effectively prosecute and secure convictions when federal law enforcement agents have committed a crime,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
The memo also noted the mayor’s “ICE on Notice” EO would jeopardize future federal agent investigations and prosecutions because of politicization, widening an uncharacteristic rift between Burke and Johnson.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling has no taste for involvement in or commenting on, political policymaking.
“This isn’t about politics for me,” Snelling said. “I do not dabble in politics. This is about getting a job done and making sure that we’re building that trust between our community members and our police officers so that we continue to drive crime down.”
At least 40 complaints have been filed with COPA alleging cooperation with ICE since June, according to a statement by COPA Chief Administrator Lakenya White, reported by Chicago Tonight (WTTW).
A search of COPA’s case portal between June. 1, 2025 and Feb. 7, 2026 by the Southwest News Herald revealed no cases, to date, involving CPD cooperation with ICE.
Of 13 complaints found during that date range, documentation for 10 of the listed COPA investigations cannot be released under court order. Three were not related to CPD cooperation with federal law enforcement.
COPA’s investigative process involves a lengthy, thorough and objective accounting of reported incidents, according to its website.
As for the mayor’s executive order, Alderman Lopez does not see a future for a privatized police force based on the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
“The last time I checked, Washington, D.C. does not report to 121 N. LaSalle St.,” he said. “As it relates to immigration and its enforcement, the Supremacy Clause is in effect. States cannot create treaties with other countries, create standing armies, print their own money … that is the beauty of our federalist system.”
It is the job of Congress to hold the federal government accountable by deploying congressional oversight, he said.
“If none of those 535 members of Congress know how to do that, then they probably need to start looking for another job,” Lopez said.
Chicago has no federal jurisdiction over ordering CPD to ask ICE or Border Patrol agents to show I.D., he said.
“That’s not an enforceable violation and it would be good if politicians remember that,” Lopez said.
Ignoring federal supremacy added fuel to the tinderbox created in Chicago neighborhoods inspiring residents to take actions that could cause their harm or worse, he said, noting the three years left until the Trump presidency ends.
“We better start focusing on solutions because all of this political subterfuge endangers those long-term undocumented individuals everyone claims to care about,” Lopez said. “They are the backbone of communities like mine. They have no protection or safety net. To be honest, except for a few of us, no one remembers they’re there.”
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Chicago Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.