Illinois Democrats are pushing to let illegal aliens, including those in Chicago’s sanctuary city, change their names to evade ICE’s deportation efforts against criminal illegals.
Governor JB Pritzker is poised to sign a new legislative measure that will remove restrictions for illegals wishing to change their names.
The new law, HB 5164, passed both houses of the Illinois legislature earlier this month and will apply to criminal offenders as well. However, it is unclear when Pritzker will sign it into law after receiving it last week.
Proponents of HB 5164 claim the new law will help certain individuals, including victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse—and, bizarrely, transgender individuals—feel safer. However, supporters also openly admit that it could aid illegal aliens amid ICE’s ongoing enforcement and deportation efforts. Illinois legislators have also blocked Chicago police from working with the federal government to remove illegals involved in drug crimes, gang activity, prostitution, human trafficking, and child sex crimes.
Illinois also passed HB3882 in 2023, allowing illegals to obtain a “standard identification card,” replacing the former classification of “non-compliant identification card.”
“There are residents in our state who do not feel safe when they are an adoptee; they’re transgender; they’re an immigrant; they’re a survivor of domestic violence, a survivor of sexual exploitation and human trafficking,” the bill’s sponsor, Democrat State Senator Ram Villivalam said in an interview. “So they would like to change their name, and in doing so, we need to remove as many barriers as we can to ensure their health and safety.”
Republican state lawmakers, however, expressed concerns about the potential of criminal illegal aliens using this law as a “loophole.”
“Is this creating a loophole for people who are here, who are criminals and part of things involved in the trafficking, involved in all of these nefarious activities that we’ve been reading about?” GOP State Senator Sue Rezin wondered.
State Senator Andrew Chesney also said: “With the passage of this law, illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes can simply change their names, making it difficult for law enforcement or immigration officials to track them down.”
The bill states that filing fees for a name change petition ‘may not exceed $25’ and allows the court to waive the fee ‘for good cause shown.’ It also reduces residency length requirements, permits petitioners to impound name change records to avoid public disclosure, and allows them to omit their home address from court records ‘if it would put the petitioner or the petitioner’s family at risk.’
The bill also repeals the requirement to publish a ‘notice of a petition to change a name’ in a local newspaper.
The law will take effect in March.
Share your thoughts by scrolling down to leave a comment.
