A Chicago landlord who threatened to call immigration authorities on a couple who rented an apartment from him in 2020 has been fined $80,000.
The couple sued Marco Antonio Contreras under the Illinois Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, which protects tenants from discrimination or harassment based on their immigration status, said the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the couple in 2022.
According to the lawsuit, the couple rented a basement apartment from Contreras and his wife beginning in 2017. But on June 30, 2020, Contreras went to the couple and demanded rent for the next month. During the confrontation, Contreras threatened to report the couple to immigration agents.
The law prohibits landlords from threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement and harassing or evicting tenants based on immigration status.
On Feb. 19, an Illinois circuit court judge ordered Contreras to pay the couple $80,000 as well as attorneys’ fees and costs for violating the tenant law. The judge also awarded a smaller sum in compensation for denying the tenants access to their belongings, MALDEF said.
“We decided not to stay silent because our landlords threatened us with calling immigration, and we do not believe that anyone has a right to threaten us,” the couple said in a statement. “No one should feel or act superior to others. We are all equals and deserve respect. Just because someone is your landlord does not mean that they get to do whatever they want to you.”
The case is the first to reach judgment since the law passed in 2019, MALDEF said. Illinois was the second state in the U.S. to enact legislation protecting immigrant tenants’ rights.