WATCH: Trump order withholds funds over no-cash bail policies like Illinois’

By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Taxpayer resources should not be used to support jurisdictions with cashless bail policies, according to a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump. The order comes as the president hedges on whether to send the National Guard to Chicago.

Within 30 days, a list of states and local jurisdictions that have ended cash bail will be delivered to the president. The order says the federal government may suspend or terminate federal funds, grants and contracts to areas with no cash bail. Illinois was the first state to end money bond statewide in September 2023.

“They have great cashless bail, you know you don’t even go to court sometimes,” Trump joked with staff in the oval office. “Illinois, I love that state. It’s a great state, but it’s run so badly by [Gov. J.B.] Pritzker.”

Monday afternoon, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice held a news conference supporting Illinois’ end to money bond. ACLU of Illinois’ Ed Yohnka said Trump’s moves are an overreach.

“You just simply don’t have the power to limit … and choke off funding to states on the basis of a policy that is really unrelated to the funding that is being given,” Yohnka said.

The group couldn’t put a price tag of how much federal tax funds could be withheld from Illinois because of the state’s no-cash bail law.

Yohnka anticipates the state of Illinois would file a lawsuit against any withholding of federal funds, to which the ACLU would file an amicus brief.

During the same event in the Oval Office Monday, Trump hedged on the idea of sending National Guard troops to Chicago to address public safety.

“These people are sick, but I’m really saying, and I say this to all of you, in a certain way we should wait to be asked, because they have cities that are so under, you know, out of control,” Trump said.

During an afternoon news conference with Democratic members of Congress and other elected officials, Pritzker said there has been no communication between state and local officials about the use of the National Guard and there is no crime emergency in Illinois or in Chicago.

“This is not because we’ve asked for it, it is not because there is some justice that he is going to seek, it is because he wants to create chaos, that is all this is about,” Pritzker said.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he couldn’t rule out a lawsuit against the Trump administration.