12/17/2023
Illinois 2024 New Laws:
HB 3751-Noncitizen immigrants who have a work permit will be eligible to become police officers (details below as it is narrowly tailored)
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As 2024 quickly approaches, many new laws will go into effect such as: Minimum Wage increase, 24 hour hotline for carjacked/stolen vehicles, defunding libraries that ban books, mandating that an employer must grant paid time leave regardless of reason......
●HB2245 which mandates auto makers selling vehicles in the state to establish a 24/7 hotline to allow police to track stolen/carjacked vehicles or cases involving kidnappings. The hotline would relay location information to the police (tracking is available on most cars from 2015 onwards) (terrific!)
●Also, a car owner is absolved of fees, fines, or penalties during the period in which the car was stolen or hijacked
●Mimimum wage increases to $14 (IL. is 1 of 7 states that have passed legislation to reach a $15 minimum wage in 2024 and beyond, neighboring Ind. min wages is the same as federal @ $7.25) (fabulous!)
●Defunds libraries that remove controversial books (wonderful!)
●Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason (excellent!)
Employers must offer workers paid time off based on hours worked, with no need to explain the reason for their absence as long as they provide notice in accordance with reasonable employer standards (nice!)
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It is HB 3751 that immediately raised questions and created confusion, on social media, after Pritzker signed the Bill in July.
Police officers in Chicago and statewide had been required by federal law to be citizens of the United States.
The law will now allow a non-citizen immigrant with a work permit, to be eligible to become a police officer upon completion of training.
The bill will allow a person 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 and is authorized under federal law to obtain, carry, or purchase or otherwise possess a firearm” to become police officers.
Contrary to confusion on social media when the bill was signed does not extend this right to all non-citizens or those who are not legally allowed to work in the country
The Bill only allows non-citizens who are eligible to work in the U.S. and are authorized to possess fi****ms under federal law to become police officers.
Contrary to confusion on social media, the bill does not extend this right to all non-citizens or those who are not legally allowed to work in the country.
DACA refers to a policy that protects those who came to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to request work authorization, as explained in a report by Reuters
And In July, Pritzker said in a press conference that undocumented immigrants are not allowed to become police officers in Illinois and that the bill extends this opportunity to legal permanent residents and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. Pritzker stated “there are people out there that think that we’re just allowing anybody to become a police officer. That’s just not accurate.”
“DACA recipients have already submitted to background checks in order to get their DACA and they have to be found to have no significant misdemeanor (or worse) offense on their record.”
[fun fact: Illinois requires that all high school students pass the Illinois and U.S. Constitution Exams while in high school (&/or JHS). I'm not sure if the legislature addressed this when passing the bill]
