East Chicago ends sanctuary city law after AG Rokita files suit

A northwestern Indiana city is now following state law banning sanctuary city policies and no longer facing a lawsuit from Attorney General Todd Rokita.

On Tuesday, Rokita announced his office has voluntarily withdrawn its lawsuit against East Chicago after officials there last week repealed the city’s “Welcoming City Ordinance.” The 2017 city law prohibited its agencies and employees from investigating an individual’s citizenship or immigration status or aiding another office’s inquiry into one without a court order.

Rokita filed the dismissal paperwork on Monday, three weeks after he filed the lawsuit in Lake Superior Court. That suit came after Rokita warned officials in East Chicago and other Indiana cities and counties earlier this year that his office claimed to have laws or policies in place that protect undocumented immigrants from facing removal.

Those letters were spurred by a law the Indiana General Assembly passed earlier this year. That law empowers the attorney general’s office to compel communities to abide by the state’s statute regarding sanctuary city ordinances and policies.

Last Wednesday, East Chicago Common Council members voted to repeal the old law. The one-page document stated that the city “remains committed to upholding” both the U.S. and Indiana constitutions as well as federal and state laws. Further, “the City has determined that (The Welcoming City Ordinance) is not effective or necessary for the protection of the rights of residents and visitors nor to ensure the health and safety of” those individuals.

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland signed it into law on Friday.

Rokita said his office is satisfied now that the town 25 miles southeast of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan has agreed to adhere to state law.

“This is a big win for hardworking Hoosiers and legal immigrants who came to our great nation the right way,” he added.

The state still has one lawsuit ongoing with a community that it claims still has policies to protect the undocumented. Days after taking East Chicago to court, Rokita filed a suit against Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marte and his department.

Marte’s department in Monroe County, home to Bloomington and Indiana University, has policies in place, Rokita said that block county personnel from aiding immigration agents in investigations and release suspected illegal immigrants into the community rather than keep them detained after their scheduled date of release.

“We will continue exercising our new enforcement authority by pushing forward with our lawsuit against Monroe County officials over their unlawful immigration policy and evaluating other local units of government that refuse to follow the law,” Rokita said.