Caucus News

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago), joined by advocacy group Parole Illinois, demonstrated strong support of Senate Bill 2333, a plan that seeks to reform the current parole system, in a press conference and rally, today.

“This is about giving people hope in what may seem to be a hopeless situation,” Villanueva said. “Our corrections system is meant to rehabilitate people. There are people who spend their time behind bars trying to better themselves, and the systems needs to recognize that.”

Senate Bill 2333 would give individuals who have been incarcerated for 20 years or more the opportunity to be reviewed for Earned Reentry. Providing a pathway to rejoin society offers an incentive to people with longer sentences to prepare for better futures.

CHICAGO – To protect first-generation college students and families from predatory business practices, a new plan offered by State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) that creates transparency and fairer guidelines for educational planning services was signed into law on Monday.

“This measure reels in bad actors that prey on low-income and first-generation students,” Villanueva said. “Families must have options to get out of deceptive, long-term contracts when these services are offered by the state free of charge.”

CHICAGO – So that students better understand the naturalization process, a measure introduced by State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) that would allow schools to offer courses on naturalization and citizenship was signed into law today.

“More than two-thirds of students who take the U.S. Citizenship test in their history courses end up failing,” Villanueva said. “Schools may now offer instruction on citizenship so that students from all backgrounds know the effort it takes to go through the naturalization process.”

CHICAGO – To keep women and children safe, legislation introduced by State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) that would establish the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee was signed into law today.

“Families are counting on us to take proactive steps to prevent domestic violence,” Villanueva said. “Our plan creates dedicated teams of advocates and survivors to craft violence prevention policy in every corner of the state. These review teams will save lives and I am grateful to the governor for his commitment to keeping women and children in Illinois safe.”

CHICAGO – To protect the privacy and safety of Illinois’ undocumented residents, a measure introduced by State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) that prohibits photographs taken for state IDs and driver’s license from being shared with federal immigration authorities was signed into law today.

“This is about building trust between our state government and undocumented communities,” Villanueva said. “It is impossible to build that trust if we are sending facial recognition data directly to authorities. Our state government doesn’t exist to serve ICE.”

AURORA – To protect the wellbeing of immigrant communities, Illinois will reinstate the Immigrant Impact Task Force thanks to a new law introduced by State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago).

“This task force will help determine where improvements can be made in how the state invests in immigrant communities,” Villanueva said. “We must address systemic disinvestment in our communities across the state and continue building a recovery that works for all Illinoisans, regardless of status.”

CHICAGO – Legislation supported by State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) that addresses licensing issues in the state’s adult-use cannabis industry was signed into law on Thursday.

“I’m proud of the work the Black and Latino Caucuses did to ensure social equity within the cannabis industry through the changes in House Bill 1443,” Villanueva said. “I hope this move brings the needed diversity to the industry so that we can begin to correct the decades of harm done to our communities through the war on drugs.”

House Bill 1443 addresses complications with the launch of the Illinois Adult-Use Cannabis Social Equity Program, which failed to award the intended amount of social equity applicants with licenses. Due to delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and a faulty scoring system, only 52 of 75 licenses were issued. None of these licenses were awarded to majority Black, Latino or women-owned businesses.

The law creates a new lottery to issue five outstanding medical cannabis dispensary licenses, and two additional lotteries of 55 recreational dispensary licenses each. It also fixes various technical issues with packaging, employment and medical patient access.

Public Act 102-98 is effective immediately.

SPRINGFIELD – So that students better understand the naturalization process, State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) passed legislation in the Illinois Senate that would allow schools to offer courses on naturalization and citizenship.

“More than two-thirds of students who take the U.S. Citizenship test in their history courses end up failing,” Villanueva said. “Schools should offer instruction on citizenship so that students from all backgrounds know the effort it takes to go through the naturalization process.”