Key takeaways from this investigation - County prosecutors in Illinois fed sensitive personal and location information about local residents — including court dates and scheduled jail releases — to federal immigration agents. - The practice was widespread: Prosecutors’ offices in 1 out of every 6 counties in Illinois provided information to ICE. - Illinois’ TRUST Act prohibits local law enforcement agencies from providing information to federal immigration officials, but state’s attorneys disagreed about whether their offices are bound by the law. - The consequences were devastating for families: Some people who didn’t appear to otherwise be on ICE’s radar were deported after county prosecutors shared information about them with federal agents. This story was produced in partnership with WIRED. Rolando Perez Samayoa had come to the United States in 2023 seeking safety. Fleeing violence in Mexico, he’d first planned to make a life in Alabama but had been told that Illinois would protect immigrants like him. “There’s some kind of law there,” he said. “It’s supposed to be a sanctuary.” He was referring to the state’s 2017 TRUST Act, which was meant to keep local law enforcement out of federal deportation efforts. Samayoa made his way to southern Illinois and found work cleaning a factory. After a DUI arrest in Marion County last October, Samayoa said, he attended his hearings — a fact confirmed by court records. In late January, John Christeson, an assistant state’s attorney in the office prosecuting the case, emailed an agent with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, about Samayoa. The message included his date of birth, an upcoming court date, and where he lived: Centralia, Illinois. “Ok, we’ll take care of it, thank you,” the federal agent, Sergio Fulgencio, wrote back minutes later. Two days later, he wanted to know