Chicago’s undocumented immigrants won new protections last month when the city council revised its “Welcoming City” ordinance to fully ban the Chicago Police Department (CPD) from collaborating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The effort was spearheaded by Chicago aldermen and democratic socialists Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who has been working to pass the protections since his election in 2015, and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, advancing legislation pushed by groups like Organized Communities Against Deportation and the Chicago Immigration Policy Working Group.

A partial ban on CPD collaboration with ICE was already on the books, but had several key exceptions that exposed many immigrants to being turned over to ICE by CPD and possibly deported. CPD was permitted to collaborate with ICE when dealing with individuals who were in Chicago’s inaccurate and racist gang database, had been convicted of felonies or were in the process of being prosecuted, or had warrants pending against them.

In addition to protecting Chicagoans from deportation, Ramirez-Rosa said that revising the ordinance was important to protect immigrants’ Sixth Amendment due process rights.