How the Trump administration is affecting Chicago and Illinois

• Some of the actions have already impacted peoples' lives and jobs while other measures are on hold as they work their way through the courts.

What's happening: We've organized a list of state and local targets to try to monitor the ongoing local effects of new federal measures.

• If we've missed some, please email to tell us.

Local institutions under investigation

• University of Chicago and Illinois Wesleyan for alleged "race exclusionary practices."
• Northwestern University for alleged antisemitism.
• WBEZ and 12 other public media stations for underwriting practices.

Shut down/canceled

• Department of Education local field offices of Civil Rights and Financial Aid that helped students navigate student loans and contest education discrimination.
• Social Security offices are on the chopping block, including one in Rockford, according to a DOGE list.
• U of Illinois Soybean Lab that trained African farmers on soybean technology and created opportunities for U.S. farmers.
• Chicago Immigration Court Helpdesk that helped migrants navigate the court system.
• Faith-based tree planting projects that maintained urban forestry throughout the Midwest.
• Temporary Protected Status for thousands of new arrivals starting as early as April.
• A USDA program to purchase $26.3 million in Illinois farm produce for local schools and childcare centers.
• DOGE terminated the leases on offices for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Tinley Park and Naperville and a Food and Drug Administration office in Peoria.
• In early March, U.S. Small Business Administration leader Kelly Loeffler announced the closure of Chicago's SBA office on South Michigan Avenue over sanctuary city policies.
• Chicago's regional Health and Human Services office closed, leaving Kansas City as the closest location for Midwesterners to seek assistance on heating, childcare and senior meals.

Sued

• Illinois, Cook County and Chicago for their sanctuary policies.

Downsized

• The Illinois Department of Public Health and nearly 100 public health departments across the state are losing $125 million in funding meant for infectious disease research and prevention.
• Housing and Urban Development's Chicago office lost 12 employees who work on records requests and act as intermediaries between HUD and others.
• EPA Region 5, which covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and 37 tribes, could lose up to 30 positions in the environmental justice division, AFGE Local 704 president Nicole Cantello says.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs, one of the largest federal agencies in Chicago, is expected to cut 80,000 positions nationwide.
• Free history, heritage and culture programs across the state run by the Illinois Humanities, which lost $2 million as part of National Endowment for the Humanities cuts, which also caused Illinois Humanities to put 75% of its staff on leave this month.

Threatened

• Lurie Children's Hospital cut back some gender-affirming care because of federal funding threats.
• Illinois clean energy jobs after a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a plan that moves fossil fuel plants ahead of renewables in the line to get hooked up to the power grid.
• Federal buildings, including the Kluczynski and Metcalfe Federal Building, were on a list of properties potentially for sale that the General Services Administration later removed from its website. But that doesn't mean they aren't on the chopping block.

• Public art managed by the feds is at risk as the administration reportedly cut staff who oversee the Fine Arts and Art in Architecture programs.
• Ukrainian refugees' legal status as the Trump administration winds down parole programs put in place under President Biden that welcomed 40,000 local Ukrainian refugees.
• Translation of government documents after a March 1 executive order rescinding requirements for federal agencies to offer language assistance to non-English speakers.
• Federal educational funding for any schools with DEI policies.
• Scientific research funding to local hospitals and universities from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
• Crop sales and costs for Illinois farmers who are already dealing with fallout from retaliatory China tariffs and lost USAID contracts. They are now bracing for potential new Mexico and Canada tariffs next month that could raise the cost of fertilizer and reduce sales to a big export market.
• Future of a Chicago Securities and Exchange office as the General Services Administration continues to reduce federal government office space.
• Biodiversity programs at Brookfield Zoo as part of cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences.
• More than $790 million in federal funding to Northwestern University in the wake of federal investigations of alleged antisemitic policies and use of DEI.
• The student visas of dozens of Illinois scholars and recent graduates of UChicago, Northwestern and University of Illinois after they were sent visa revocations for reasons that are still unclear.
• Illinois climate protections after Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Justice to stop the enforcement of state laws on climate change.
• Federal funding to the state as the House Oversight Committee sent letters to "sanctuary state" governors, including JB Pritzker, to testify on state policies.

Editor's note: This is a developing story.