Chuy García and the Bill to Decriminalize Illegal Entry
Chuy García immigrated from Durango, Mexico, as a boy and rose through Chicago's machine. In Congress he wrote the bill to repeal the law making illegal border crossing a crime, said the Homeland Security Department should be dismantled, and was rebuked by the House for a scheme to hand his seat to his chief of staff.
- Origin
- Mexico
- Pathway
- Family / chain
- Citizenship
- Naturalized citizen
- Religion
- Catholic
- Caucus
- Progressive Caucus
- First elected
- 2018
Key Findings
Jesús "Chuy" García was born in Durango, Mexico, in 1956. He immigrated to Chicago in 1965, at about age 9, and naturalized as a citizen in 1977.
He represents Illinois's 4th district, a gerrymandered majority-Hispanic seat that was about 31.5% foreign-born as of 2024, more than double the national rate.
His DW-NOMINATE first-dimension score is −0.438 and his Heritage Action score is 28%. He has served as a whip and vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
He was the lead author of the New Way Forward Act, which would repeal the law making illegal border crossing a crime. He has said the Department of Homeland Security "must be dismantled." In November 2025 the House voted 238 to 186 to rebuke him over a scheme to install his chief of staff as his successor.
Jesús García goes by Chuy. He came to Chicago as a boy, climbed the city's Democratic machine for three decades, and arrived in Congress as one of the most reliable votes on the left. His signature bill would do what no other member's has openly proposed: erase the crime of crossing the border illegally.
Durango to Little Village
García was born in Durango, Mexico, in 1956. He immigrated to Chicago in 1965, at about 9, and grew up in the Mexican neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village. He naturalized as a citizen in 1977.[1]
He built a long career in Chicago politics. He was a city alderman, the first Mexican-American in the Illinois state senate, and a Cook County commissioner. In 2015 he forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff before losing.[1] He won the 4th district's House seat in 2018. The district is a famously gerrymandered shape drawn to link two Hispanic areas, and about 31.5% of its residents were born outside the country, more than twice the national rate.[2]
The record
García votes with the left of the House. His DW-NOMINATE first-dimension score is −0.438, and his Heritage Action score is 28%.[3][4] He has held leadership posts in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, serving as a whip and later a vice chair.[5] He cosponsored the Green New Deal and the Medicare for All Act.[5]
Erasing the border crime
García's defining legislation is the New Way Forward Act. He is its lead author. The bill would repeal the federal criminal penalties for illegal entry and reentry, converting illegal border crossing from a crime into a civil violation.[6] It would also end most mandatory detention and bar deportation for many immigrants with older criminal convictions.[6]
He has gone further in his rhetoric than in his bills. On his official House page he states that "not another dollar" should go to immigration enforcement and that the Department of Homeland Security "must be dismantled."[7] In 2018 he called ICE "repressive and racist" and spoke of "defining what we replace ICE with."[7]
No serious account of the immigration debate can ignore what this represents. A sitting member of Congress, in leadership of the largest caucus on the left, authored the bill to remove the criminal penalty for entering the country illegally and called for abolishing the federal department that secures the border.
The succession scheme
García's last year in office produced a different kind of record. In November 2025 he announced he would not seek reelection. His campaign had quietly collected ballot signatures for his chief of staff, Patty García, who is not related to him, and filed her candidacy hours before the deadline so that she would be the only Democrat on the ballot.[8]
The House responded. On November 18, 2025, it voted 238 to 186 to formally rebuke him for the maneuver.[8] The rebuke is its own kind of evidence. A representative who spent his career invoking democracy and the rights of the powerless tried to hand his seat to a staffer by closing the ballot to voters.
The author of decriminalization
García used the machinery of American politics expertly, which is the point. He used it to author the New Way Forward Act, the most far-reaching rollback of immigration enforcement any member has proposed, and to declare that the Department of Homeland Security "must be dismantled." At the end of his tenure he used it again, filing his chief of staff's candidacy hours before the deadline to hand her the seat, until the House rebuked him 238 to 186.
The 4th district was gerrymandered to link two Hispanic areas and runs about 31.5% foreign-born, more than twice the national rate. It sent to Congress the one member willing to put his name on a bill erasing the crime of illegal entry. García immigrated from Durango as a boy and naturalized in 1977, and his signature legislation would remove the penalty that once applied to arrivals like him. A district built by concentrated immigration produced the sharpest legislative attack on the enforcement of immigration law, and the Nation of Settlers argues that is not a coincidence but the predictable result of the concentration itself.
Sources
- U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Directory, Illinois District 4 - born in Durango, Mexico, April 12, 1956; immigrated to Chicago in 1965; naturalized in 1977; prior offices
- Data USA, Congressional District 4, Illinois (American Community Survey) - about 31.5% foreign-born as of 2024
- DW-NOMINATE first-dimension scores, voteview.com - Chuy García −0.438
- Heritage Action Scorecard, 118th Congress - Chuy García 28%
- Office of Rep. Chuy García, "Congressman García elected as Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus" - Progressive Caucus leadership; cosponsorships
- Congress.gov, H.R. 5383, New Way Forward Act, 116th Congress - García as lead sponsor; repeal of criminal penalties for illegal entry and reentry
- Office of Rep. Chuy García, immigration page - "not another dollar" for enforcement and that the Department of Homeland Security "must be dismantled"; Chicago Sun-Times, August 2018 - "repressive and racist" remarks on ICE
- NBC News, "House rebukes Democratic Rep. Chuy García over succession scheme" - 238–186 vote, November 18, 2025