US judge rejects Trump administration challenge to Illinois E-Verify law

By Daniel Wiessner

Aug 20 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Chicago has dismissed a bid by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to bar Illinois from restricting employers' use of a federal program that electronically verifies eligibility to work in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Tuesday said an Illinois law imposing a series of requirements on employers who use E-Verify falls within the state's power to regulate employment and does not interfere with the federal government's enforcement of immigration laws.

Trump, a Republican, has made immigration enforcement a centerpiece of his second term. His administration has stepped up arrests of immigrants, cracked down on unlawful border crossings and stripped legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants.

Coleman denied the administration's motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the law, which took effect in January, and granted a motion by Illinois to dismiss the case.

"The federal government’s broad interpretation of its power to regulate matters of immigration would swallow the historic powers of the states over employment-related issues," wrote Coleman, an appointee of President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Illinois Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

E-Verify was established in 1996 to help companies avoid hiring people who are in the United States illegally and lack authorization to work. The program compares work eligibility forms filled out by workers, known as I-9s, with records maintained by the federal government.

E-Verify is voluntary on the federal level, but 10 states require all or most employers to use it and about a dozen others mandate it for government contractors. California and Illinois are the only states that restrict the use of E-Verify.

The Illinois law, called the Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, bans employers from using the program to check the immigration status of existing employees and requires them to post notices about E-Verify in the workplace.

It also requires employers to notify workers when federal authorities are conducting an audit of their immigration status and allow them to address any discrepancies in their paperwork.

The Trump administration in its lawsuit claimed that because the law discourages employers from using E-Verify, it disrupts federal immigration enforcement and is preempted by federal law.

Coleman on Tuesday said that argument was "broad to the point of absurdity." If the administration were correct, it would mean that states also could not mandate the use of E-Verify and that various other state employment laws that have been upheld by courts would be invalid, she said.

The case is United States v. Illinois, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No. 1:25-cv-04811.

For the United States: Elianis Perez of the U.S. Department of Justice

For Illinois: Darren Kinkead of the Illinois Attorney General's Office

Read more:

Trump's immigration enforcement record so far, by the numbers