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Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia suspended the online application method, which sent a subpoena to her office for information about the applicant in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (ICE).
It faces Resistance from local officials. Leaders of cities like Chicago, which are particularly democratic, are the most outspoken, working to protect illegal immigrants from deportation.
Valencia announced on Friday that her office will be offline to bring the CityKey online portal, Chicago Tribune Report. Citykeys is a form of ID issued by local governments that can be used by Chicago residents regardless of their immigration status, gender identity, or criminal history. Her decision to suspend the online application portal, which took place when Ice summoned her office to obtain information provided by non-citizens in order to seek illegal immigration.
The Chicago Tribune noted that when the Municipal ID program was first introduced in 2017, it aimed to comply with public records laws and protect personal information by processing applications only on manual processing.
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ICE summoned the Chicago Clerk’s Office for information about illegal immigration applicants for the CityKey Municipal ID program. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
But as the immigration crisis soared in the following years, the city created an online portal to process applicants; the office does not allow the destruction of office documents under the Public Records Act.
Valencia was shocked by the online retention of documents available on the ice, suspending this aspect of the program.
“We did hear, ‘Let’s pause the online platform for the time being and evaluate what’s going on,” Valencia told the Tribune. “We’re going to evaluate what’s going on every day and where the climate is, and if we feel like we’re in another place, we can easily reopen the online platform, but we won’t go anywhere.”
In May 2024, the City Council signed a new amendment to the Municipal Code, adding: “The information provided by applicants who use online platforms to obtain Chicago ID will be stored.”
“Listen, I’ve always been honest, transparent, and led with integrity,” Valencia told the Tribune. “I know there’s a lot of fear out there, so I’m going to make it clear that any data we’re going to fight to the federal government… for the ICE of CityKey, no data was given during the zero period.”
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Illegal immigration has been President Trump’s flagship issue since his first run and faces strong opposition from local Democratic leaders across the country when trying to deport illegal immigrants. (Win McNamee/Getty Images and Ice)
“I want to go back to the initial question, if the Trump administration doesn’t have data that goes beyond private data, it’s not even a conversation,” Valencia said. “It’s Trump doing a witch hunt and deliberately trying to instill fear into people so that they can go beyond our democracy.”
The city said it does not have to comply with the ICE’s administrative subpoena, but it could trigger a legal battle if the ICE comes back through a court order.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hit the door of the suspect in an ice attack in Chicago, Illinois. (Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ice and Valencia did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
