North Cook News

Illinois State Senator Chapin Rose has expressed concerns that state laws restricting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) impede justice in the case of a fatal DUI crash involving Coles County Board member Mike Clayton and his wife. Rose's comments were made in a press release.

"It has now been confirmed that the Clark County Sheriff has received an ICE detention order for the suspect in the horrific DUI accident that killed Coles County Board member Mike Clayton and his wife, Gail, and also horribly injured two others Friday night," said Thomas Chapin Rose, State Senator for Illinois. "Worse yet, under Illinois's idiotic laws that protect illegals and criminals over citizens – laws that Governor Pritzker refuses to fix – the Clark County Sheriff is not even allowed to enforce the ICE order to detain the suspect, Edwin O. Pacheco-Meza. It is also totally ridiculous that the Illinois State Police have apparently been ordered not to release the citizenship status of the suspect – hiding the basic details of this tragedy from the public at large."

According to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the state's TRUST Act, enacted in 2017 and expanded by the 2021 Way Forward Act, limits local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration authorities on civil detainers or arrests based solely on immigration status. The office reaffirmed in 2025 that state and local officers cannot detain individuals for ICE without a judicial warrant, maintaining Illinois' designation as a "sanctuary" state.

In 2025, Edwin O. Pacheco-Meza was involved in a Clark County crash that resulted in charges of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide after two fatalities occurred. The Department of Homeland Security reported that ICE lodged a detainer which was not honored under Illinois law; Pacheco-Meza remains in custody awaiting court proceedings, highlighting the conflict between state sanctuary laws and federal enforcement.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 2024 Annual Report noted that ICE issued 149,764 detainers nationwide for non-citizens with criminal records, marking a 19.5 percent increase from 2023. Although specific data for Illinois were not provided, under the state's TRUST Act, local agencies are prohibited from honoring detainers without judicial orders, resulting in most ICE requests going unfulfilled in 2024.

Rose has represented Illinois’ 51st Senate District since 2013 following ten years of service in the House. As reported by the Illinois General Assembly, he serves as the Republican Minority Spokesperson on Appropriations and Judiciary committees and has sponsored legislation concerning law enforcement funding and border security resolutions, indicative of his tough-on-crime stance.