Amid increased public calls for Illinois elected officials to more strongly push back against the Trump administration’s sometimes-violent crackdown on undocumented people in the Chicago region, state lawmakers on Thursday proposed trying to formally ban federal agents from arresting people near courthouses and allowing lawsuits if individuals’ rights have been violated in civil immigration arrests.

Even the measure’s key sponsor, Senate President Don Harmon, called the bill “imperfect,” but he said Democratic lawmakers in Springfield felt the need to act, as state and local officials have often felt hamstrung in countering the federal government’s often-aggressive tactics.

“I’m prepared for this law to be challenged, but I think we still have an obligation to try to do something,” Har

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