Trump Administration Loses Bid to Block Illinois E-Verify Law

A Chicago federal judge threw out the Trump administration’s challenge to an Illinois law regulating employers’ use of the E-Verify program, finding some of the federal government’s claims were “based on nothing but speculation.”

The administration argued that the state law—which among other things requires employers to give employees notice of their right to contest a finding that they might not be authorized to work—was preempted by federal statute, an argument experts said could be risky.

In granting Illinois’ motion to dismiss Tuesday, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman found that “the federal government’s broad interpretation of its power to regulate matters of immigration would swallow the historic powers of the states over employment-related issues.”

The federal government argued a preemption theory that was “broad to the point of absurdity,” wrote Coleman, of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The government “has alleged no facts at all to support an inference” that the Illinois law discourages E-Verify enrollment “such that the law is in conflict with Congress’s purpose in establishing the program,” Coleman wrote.

The federal E-Verify program allows employers to check workers’ self-submitted information against government records to confirm whether they are authorized to work in the United States.

The case is U.S. v. Illinois, N.D. Ill., No. 1:25-cv-04811, motion to dismiss granted 8/19/25.