One immigrant group expressly included for eligibility to become police officers under Illinois’ new law are DACAs — immigrants who are here under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
However, the law also expressly requires applicants to be authorized under federal law to obtain, carry, purchase or otherwise possess a firearm.
But DACAs cannot possess firearms or ammunition. Federal law prohibits it. Colorado is facing the same obstacle with a law similar to Illinois’ so it’s trying to get a waiver or amendment to the federal law.
So, what the law gave with one hand it took away with another. It’s political posturing through double-talk, stoking political and racial division.
One supposed workaround to the gun obstacle has been reported in Blue Island, where a DACA is a police recruit who would not be allowed to take his gun home, but it’s hard to see how that can work out. The federal prohibition includes no exemption for police work and off-duty cops need guns.
Gov. JB Pritzker bristled this week about claims that the law allows “illegal” immigrants to become police. He said the law’s “right wing” critics are “saying that we’re allowing illegal, illegal immigrants is the word that they would use…. I am tired of the right wing twisting these things. They put it out on Facebook, they tell lies.”
In fact, however, DACAs are illegal immigrants. They are protected from deportation for now under a deferred immigration action program, but “the program does not grant them official legal status [emphasis added],” as Newsweek explained in a fact check. “Deferred action does not confer any lawful immigration status,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And the whole deferred action program is in legal limbo. As Newsweek explained, a U.S. appellate court in October 2022 declared the program “unlawful.”
DACAS are those who entered the country as minors. Perhaps you feel they deserve particular compassion and help, as I do, and think what you want about the merits of the new law, but that doesn’t change the fact that DACAs are here illegally under immigration law.
Pritzker went on to explain the law more accurately, which is to say with the same-double talk that’s in the law. “What we have allowed is legal permanent residents and DACA recipients now to become police officers [emphasis added],” he said. “So we have the ability for people who are legally in this country, and again, permanent residents or DACA recipients now to apply for jobs as police officers.”
No, DACA recipients cannot be eligible because of the gun possession ban. And if there is some workaround to that available, then it is true that “illegal” immigrants — DACAs — are eligible to become police under the new law.
The same two-faced issue in the new law appears to apply to many noncitizen asylum seekers in the U.S. They are not named specifically as being eligible to become a cop in the new law, but they can hold work permits under certain conditions, which makes them eligible at one level. However, they, too, cannot possess firearms, making them ineligible.
It should be noted that some immigrants who clearly are not illegal are covered by the bill. Most importantly, that includes green card holders, who have permanent residency status. There are over 12 million of them in America.
It should also be noted that the new law passed with significant bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.