By Jenna Schweikert, Brenden Moore, Ben Szalinski, and Nikoel Hytrek
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com
The Illinois House approved legislation April 8 that would prohibit the federal government from operating a new immigration detention center within 1,500 feet of any home, school, day care center, park, forest preserve, cemetery or place of worship.
House Bill 5024, sponsored by House speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, passed on a largely partisan 72-35-2 roll call and now moves to the Illinois Senate for consideration. It was one of more than 50 bills advanced out of the chamber April 8 as the House begins several days of floor action.
Welch’s district includes Broadview, the west suburban village of about 8,000 that’s home to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center that became a focal point for protesters during Operation Midway Blitz last year. The facility wouldn’t be affected by the measure.
“The detention center in Broadview sits in the middle of a neighborhood where there are homes nearby, children nearby, families nearby and a church,” Welch said. “In what should be a place of peace and routine for that community has too often become a place of fear, disruption, trauma and instability.”
The legislation is not retroactive, meaning it would apply to future facilities, but not the existing facility in Broadview or others currently owned or leased by the federal government.
The bill is likely to run into legal hurdles. Generally, the federal government is exempt from state and local zoning restrictions.
Nearly all Republicans opposed the legislation. Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, accused Democrats — who hold supermajorities in the legislature — of “continually picking fights with the federal government.”
“The result of this effort to not work together with the federal government to resolve the issues, particularly related to immigration and enforcement of our laws, has resulted in huge problems in our state that the majority party attempts to blame the current presidential administration for,” Windhorst said. “But we need to take a hard look at what we’re doing as a state to make sure we’re fulfilling our obligations to protect our citizens and to enforce the laws, including the federal laws of our country.”
Welch said it was the other way around.
“The federal government’s picking a fight with us,” Welch said. “We have state’s rights. We know our rights; we know our power. And I wake up every single day saying, ‘Thank God I live in Illinois,’ because we’re protecting the people of Illinois.”
Illinois already bans privately owned immigration detention centers. And under the Illinois Way Forward Act, local governments are prohibited from entering contracts with ICE to detain immigrants for the agency in county jails.
Apartment rental fees
One measure passed this week is going to the governor’s desk. The House voted 64-40 to pass House Bill 3564, which aims to crack down on the types of fees landlords can charge their renters.
The bill prohibits landlords from charging fees of more than $50 for applications, background checks, modifying a lease, making after-hours maintenance requests, or pest abatement or removal, so long as the renter didn’t cause the issue. It would also require all mandatory fees to be listed on the first page of a lease, and tenants would not be required to pay any fees that are not listed on that page.
“I’ve actually heard from several landlords in the negotiation process of this bill where they have talked about certain bad actors in the industry that are charging these absurd fees that don’t make sense,” bill sponsor Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Inverness, said. “They don’t make sense to many landlords and they don’t make sense to many tenants. And this is simply trying to remove the ability to put additional fees that … are just causing undue burdens on individuals that are looking for housing.”
Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, worried the bill would lead to higher rents.
“Their natural inclination is going to be to build these costs into the base rent and therefore, the tenants are going to be paying additional higher rents,” he said.
If signed, the bill would take effect July 1.
High school voter registration
House Bill 4339 would require high schools to offer eligible students the opportunity to register to vote. Although the bill mandates this action, it provides no consequences if a school does not offer that opportunity.
The bill passed 77-24 with bipartisan support, although some Republicans expressed concern about nonprofits that schools would partner with encouraging students to support one political party over another.
Sponsor Rep. Kimberly du Buclet, D-Chicago, said the bill intends to increase youth voter registration.
“This bill was inspired by the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. who said, and I quote, ‘Senior high school graduation must be seen as a passage rite into adulthood. On that graduation day or night, we must put a diploma in one hand, symbolizing knowledge and wisdom, and put a voter registration card in that other hand, symbolizing power and responsibility,’ and that is the heart of this legislation,” du Buclet said.
Minimum age of alleged child abuse perpetrators
Under current Illinois law, there is no given age that a minor can be held liable for child abuse. The House voted 102-2 to pass House Bill 4539 seeks to make the minimum age for liability 14 — the age children can legally stay home alone without supervision.
Bill sponsor Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, said the measure was initiated by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services because the department was investigating cases involving alleged perpetrators as young as six.
The bill also seeks to provide guidance if an alleged perpetrator is under 14, in which case the bill directs DCFS to identify if there is an adult or agency whose disregard allowed maltreatment.
Hidden junk fees
For the second time in three years, the Illinois House voted to ban hidden “junk fees” that are often added to the total cost of ticketed events, hotel rooms and other goods and services.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, passed 77-18. It was among more than 80 bills the House approved April 9.
House Bill 228 amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act to make it a violation for a business to not display all mandatory fees and charges they’re adding on top of a listed price. The goal is to ensure consumers are aware of the total price before making the purchase.
“This bill delivers on a promise that’s quite simple: The price that you see should be the price that you pay,” Morgan told lawmakers during floor debate. He estimated that the hidden fees cost an average Illinois family $3,000 annually.
Junk fees have long been a target for consumer advocates and progressive lawmakers. The Illinois House approved a ban in 2024 but it was was never voted on in the Senate.
In his State of the State address this year, Gov. JB Pritzker explicitly called for lawmakers to get the issue across the finish line, arguing that such fees were “quietly nickel-and-diming Illinois families out of thousands of dollars per year.”
Morgan said the bill was like the one that passed a couple years ago, but ambiguous language was tightened up to make it easier for businesses to comply and the Illinois Attorney General’s office to enforce.
Nine Republicans joined supermajority Democrats in supporting the amended bill. However, the changes weren’t enough to remove opposition from the state’s top business, banking and hospitality organizations.
Rep. Tom Weber, R-Lake Villa, who voted against the bill, said the underlying idea was a good one, but the legislation went “a step too far on our already overburdened businesses.”
The bill now moves to the Illinois Senate.
Abortion fund
The House on Thursday voted along party lines 69-36 to pass a bill that would create a grant fund to cover abortion care for uninsured and underinsured people.
House Bill 5408, another of Pritzker’s initiatives, would utilize an under-used provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires insurance plans that offer coverage for abortions in instances that go beyond rape, incest and the life of the mother to collect at least $1 a month from enrollees to cover the cost of abortion claims.
Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, the bill sponsor, said she anticipates an amendment in the Senate because of concerns from Illinois’ health insurance industry.
“This is an important bill that helps support our reproductive health care providers in the state of Illinois and ensure that women who need this health care are able to access it,” she said.
Cash payment requirement
Many Illinois stores would be required to accept cash in most circumstances under House Bill 4592, which passed the House unanimously on Thursday.
The bill requires any store with a physical location that employs someone to accept in-person transactions to accept cash for transactions under $500. Stores would not be required to accept currency larger than $20. The bill would take effect in 2028 and now awaits further consideration in the Senate.
Grocery coupon access
House Bill 45 would require retailers to provide digital promotions or coupons to eligible customers. Bill sponsor Rep. Janet Yang Rohr, D-Naperville, said the bill came from concerns that eligible customers were being denied access to the same benefits because paper coupons were not available.
The original version of the bill required merchants to provide paper coupons, but the amendment broadened the regulation to ensure all eligible customers for a coupon are afforded access to the promotion.
There is no penalty to the merchant unless the establishment does not cure a violation within 15 days of being notified of the violation. The bill passed unanimously and moves on to the Senate.
In-state tuition
House Bill 5093 removes a requirement in state law that a student who attended an Illinois high school could only receive in-state tuition at an Illinois university if they did not establish residency outside the state before enrolling in an Illinois university. With the change, students who attend at least two years of high school in Illinois could receive in-state tuition regardless of whether they moved out of state before going to college.
“As a first generation, I can’t imagine having to live in Illinois all my life, but then when I go to a university, be considered for out-of-state tuition because I’m an immigrant,” bill sponsor Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, told Capitol News Illinois. “Of course in-state tuition, it is cheaper and I want to have more students be able to access that.”
The bill passed the House on Thursday on a partisan 71-37 vote, with Republicans arguing the bill would unfairly benefit non-citizens. It now moves on to the Senate.
Narcan for formerly incarcerated
House Bill 5302 would require the Illinois Department of Corrections to provide opioid antagonists like Narcan to any incarcerated person who was charged for a drug-related offense or has a substance abuse disorder upon their release.
Bill sponsor Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Orland Park, said overdose rates have decreased, and initiatives like this would further the initiative to decrease overdose deaths. The bill passed 77-29 and awaits further consideration in the Senate.
State bee
Illinois could soon have an official state bee after the House approved House Bill 4438, which Yang Rohr said was an initiative of Lincoln Junior High School students in Naperville. The bill would give the honor to the Black-and-Gold Bumblebee — scientifically known as bombas auricomus.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Blue envelope program
The Blue Envelope program would provide individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder with blue envelopes that identify them as autistic and provide communication guidance to law enforcement.
Under House Bill 4472, sponsored by Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumberg, the secretary of state would establish, design and administer the voluntary program.
The office would also distribute the envelopes to state and local law enforcement, fire departments and libraries.
Rep. Amy Briel, D-La Salle, spoke in support of the bill, recalling experiences she’s had with law enforcement where they did not understand the effects of her dyspraxia, a condition that affects motor skills and coordination.
The bill passed unanimously.
Emmett Till Day
House Bill 4323 commemorates July 25 of each year as Emmett Till Day. Till was born in Chicago on that day in 1941. In 1955, Till was kidnapped and lynched while visiting family members in Mississippi and his death became a catalyst in the civil rights movement.
The House passed a similar measure last year, but the bill was gutted in the Senate on the final day of the session and turned into the state’s fiscal year 2026 revenue plan.
This year’s version passed unanimously.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.