Kane County Reporter

The state senator from Illinois' 25th District says he has told Gov. Bruce Rauner "very clearly" what he thinks of the governor's decision to sign controversial immigration legislation this past summer, the senator said during a recent interview.

"I am extremely disappointed that Gov. Rauner signed the sanctuary state bill and I let him know my feelings very clearly," Sen. James D. "Jim" Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove) told the Kane County Reporter. "His response was that this bill does not actually change the enforcement of the law and that it should not fairly be referred to as a sanctuary state bill."

Oberweis said he agreed so far as signing Senate Bill 31 - or not - would have made little difference. 

"In fairness to the governor, I don’t believe that any of the Democrat candidates for governor would have vetoed the bill either," he said. "I assume the strongly controlled Democrat legislature would likely have overridden a veto anyway."

Oberweis has represented the 25th District since he first was elected to the seat in 2012. The State Senate 25th District is located within Cook, Kane, Dupage and Kendall counties.

Rauner signed the Illinois Trust Act, Senate Bill 31, on Aug. 28, saying in a press release that the legislation "will continue Illinois' history of welcoming immigrants and help law enforcement focus on stopping violent crime and protecting Illinois residents."

"Illinois has been welcoming of immigrants for a long time, and this bill will continue that tradition," Rauner was quoted in the press release. "It also makes clear that stopping violent crime will be law enforcement's mission rather than working on federal prerogatives that a federal court has found illegal."

The legislation will encourage bad behavior on the part of immigrants, Oberweis said during his Kane County Reporter interview. 

"In my opinion, allowing people to enter our country illegally and/or overstay their visa without penalty encourages more people to break our laws, and that must be stopped," he said.

"Having said that, if we could establish strong policies to prevent future illegal immigration, including enforcing E-verify and taking actions against companies who hire illegal aliens at low labor rates to gain a competitive advantage against companies who do not hire illegals, and thus must pay higher wages to Americans and legal green card holders, then I could consider a compromise plan to allow kids who have grown up here for most of their lives to have a path to legal citizenship. Parents of those children could be issued non-immigrant visas, allowing them to stay and work here but not a path to citizenship unless they follow the same rules as anyone who did not enter our country illegally and they must not receive taxpayer paid government services including social security and Medicare. In the alternative, they can return to their own country."

Rauner's decision to sign Senate Bill 31, also known as the Illinois TRUST Act, announced about a week before he did so, has been widely criticized by conservatives. On the day Gov. Rauner signed the legislation, former Congressman turned conservative radio host Joe Walsh posted on his Twitter page that the governor "is slapping every citizen in the face" and that "he's guaranteeing his loss in 2018."