The State of Illinois has enacted a law enabling DACA recipients and permanent residents without citizenship to become law enforcement officers.
One of the law’s chief backers in the Illinois General Assembly is Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora).
“The goal of the bill is to allow DACA and permanent residents that are already able to work in the country legally to apply to become police officers. … This was to help officers with shortages and give an opportunity to those working here legally for so long to apply,” Hernandez said, Fox 32 Chicago reported.
However, former Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson indicated he would file a legal challenge against the bill, arguing that it is improper to staff police departments with people that do not have U.S. citizenship.
“I cannot go to China or any other country in the world being a non-citizen and become a police officer, and I think that’s wrong,” Wilson said, per Fox 32.
The new law sparked considerable outrage on social media.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “To the Left, citizenship is meaningless. Illinois is now letting illegal aliens become police officers. … No illegal alien should have authority over any American citizen. It is a sad commentary on the state of America that this is even a debate.”
For his part, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker defended the bill. According to NBC 5 Chicago, the governor said, “I am tired of the right wing twisting things. They put it on Facebook, they tell lies. There are people out there that think we’re just allowing anybody to become a police officer. That’s just not accurate.”
The law explicitly grants eligibility to someone “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.”
Illinois is not the only state struggling to staff its police force. In Texas, the City of Dallas has also been dealing with a severe police shortage.
The Dallas Police Department currently lacks roughly 900 police officers. A City analysis previously recommended about three officers for every 1,000 residents, putting the target staffing level for Dallas at approximately 4,000. However, the department currently employs about 3,100 officers.
