Chicago landlord must pay $80,000 for threatening to call ICE on tenants
A Chicago landlord has been instructed to pay more than $80,000 to a tenant couple after he threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on them.
Marco Antonio Contreras and his wife, Denise Contreras, were the first people to be charged under the 2019 Immigrant Tenant Protection Act. The law forbids landlords from evicting tenants solely because of their immigration status or otherwise threatening to report tenants' immigration status to threaten or retaliate against them.
The case was filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund on behalf of the tenants.
“Everyone has rights under the rule of law regardless of their actual or perceived immigration status. In Illinois, landlords are prohibited from wielding the threat of immigration enforcement as a weapon against their tenants,” said MALDEF Midwest regional counsel Susana Sandoval Vargas. “This decision shows that those who choose to disregard these protections will face serious consequences. This is an important victory for all tenants in Illinois, who, like our clients, just want a safe place to call home.”
The couple praised the ruling in a statement.
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