RAC-IL

RAC-IL is dedicated to supporting vulnerable populations, which is why our 2025 State Campaign was focused on Immigration Justice. RAC-IL was part of a large coalition that sucuessfully passed the Safe Schools for All Bill (SB 2065 / HB 3247). In Illinois its is now illegal to:

1. Prohibit excluding students and their parents from schools and school programs based on immigration status.
2. Prohibit school procedures or measures that have the effect of excluding or discouraging students from attending school and school programs based on immigration status, including requesting a social security number.

Take Action

• For decades in Illinois, the size of a person’s bank account was the main factor determining who was jailed and who returned to the community while awaiting trial and presumed innocent. RAC-IL was an integral part of the coalition that won the campaign to end money bond (bail) in Illinois. This historic victory has impacted hundreds of thousands of people and has made it so we no longer hold people who are presumed innocent while awaiting trial. The executive branch of the federal government has issued an executive order aimed at forcing states that have ended or reduced the use of money bail in the pretrial process to reverse those policies. It is important to let our state legislator know that as the Reform Jewish Community we still support pretrial fairness.
  • Email your legislator in support of the Pretrial Fairness Act against attacks from the federal government.

Updates

• August 2025: Governor Pritzker signs Safe Schools for All legislation.
• May 2025: Safe Schools for All legislation is passed by the Illinois General Assembly.
• March 2025: RAC-IL starts campaign in support of Safe Schools for All Bill SB2065/HB3247
• February 2025: Governor Pritzker signs Karina's Bill making it Karina's Law.
• January 2025: Karina's Bill is passed by the Illinois General Assembly.
  • Over 100 witness slips submitted

In the News

• https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/08/19/illinois-law-immigrant-students-access-public-education
• https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/pritzker-signs-karinas-law-to-remove-guns-from-domestic-violence-situations/

Learn about our work across the country to organize, mobilize, and advocate so that all people can thrive in multiracial, inclusive democracies in North America and Israel.

• Providing families with assurance of public education regardless of immigration status
  
  Safe Schools for All legislation protects students from being prohibited from receiving a public education based on their or their parent’s immigration status in Illinois.
   
• Removing firearms from domestic abusers when a restraining order is filed against them 
  
  Karina's Law strengthens the law to require firearms be removed from homes where domestic violence survivors have been granted an order of protection. 
   
• Ending money bond in Illinois through the passage of The Pretrial Fairness Act 
  
  Illinois became the first state to abolish cash bail and allow a more equitable system for pretrial detention. The law is considered a national model for other states seeking to end the practice of cash bail.
   
• Stopping housing discrimination based on income through passage of HB 2275 
  
  The measure made discriminating against people based on their source of income explicitly against the law. This type of discrimination most often happens to people when they try to use housing vouchers or other public benefits rather than traditional wage income to pay rent. Illinois was the 20th state to pass such protections.
   
• Ensuring that everyone in the state can interact with law enforcement when needed, regardless of immigration status
  
  The Illinois Way Forward Act, SB 667, strictly limited local law enforcement collaboration with civil immigration authorities and made Illinois the third state to end immigrant detention.