A Chicago judge has ordered a local landlord and his wife to pay more than $80,000 to former tenants after threatening them to report them to immigration authorities during a dispute.
The ruling marks the first judgment under Illinois' Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, enacted in 2019, which prohibits landlords from evicting tenants or using immigration status as a means of intimidation or retaliation. Illinois became the second state to enact such a law, following California in 2017, with similar legislation being passed in Colorado in 2021.
