Board Members Press County Over Stalled $200,000 Immigration Funding

Will County Board | September 17, 2026

Article Summary: Two Will County Board members used closing comments on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, to accuse the county executive’s office of sitting on $200,000 the board appropriated for immigration services nearly a year ago, drawing a rebuttal from a third member who said she met with the recipient organization and understood the money was intended to buy a vehicle.

Immigration Funding Dispute Key Points:

• Member Destinee Ortiz, citing a Sept. 4 report by Michelle Mullins in the Daily Southtown, said the $200,000 the board approved for immigration services roughly 10 months ago has not been disbursed.
• She said Illinois Workers in Action has helped nearly 31,000 people since January, has had a single sit-down meeting with the county, lacks access to the county’s grant software and has “zero timeline” for the money.
• Member Judy Ogalla said the funding came from cannabis tax revenue and was intended to help people who came to the country legally obtain citizenship; she said a friend she referred was successfully helped.
• Member Jacqueline Traynere said she met with the organization twice and understood it intended to buy a vehicle.

WILL COUNTY — Nearly a year after the Will County Board set aside $200,000 for immigration services, none of it has been paid out — and on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, two board members said so from the floor while a third publicly questioned what the money was for.

Ortiz raised the issue first, in the first of a three-part comment during the board members’ comment period.

“Back on September 4th, Michelle Mullins from the Daily Southtown reported that $200,000 this board approved for immigration services 10 months ago still has not been handed out,” Ortiz said. “She pointed out that Illinois Workers in Action, or IWA, has already helped nearly 31,000 people since January, offering free legal advice along the way. Yet, almost a full year after we voted for this funding, IWA has only gotten a single sit-down meeting. They’re still waiting on access to the county’s grant software and have zero timeline for when they’ll actually see the money.”

She continued: “The Latino community shouldn’t be forced to wait a whole year for the executive’s office to get moving. We’re not going to forget this delay and we will remember everyone who stayed silent while our community was told to wait once again.”

Ogalla returned to the subject later, describing the funding source and purpose as she understood them. “This board voted to use cannabis dollars to provide funding to certain groups,” she said. “One of those was the IWA group to help legal residents, legal people who have come from other countries legally, to be able to have assistance to get their citizenship. I have a friend who I referred to this group and they successfully helped him achieve that goal of his.”

Traynere, who spoke after Ogalla, disputed the characterization of the award. “As for the IWA, I have sat down and met with them twice, and my understanding of what they intended to do with that money was not to help any resident that was here legally to obtain citizenship, but to in fact buy a vehicle,” she said. “So there you have it.”

Democratic Leader Sherry Williams added a note on terminology: “When we’re talking about the immigrant community, it’s not just the Latinos that are part of the immigrant community.”

The Written Record

The appropriation also surfaced in the board’s written comment file. Peter Kozak-Rivera wrote to the board on Aug. 24 that “in November 2025, the Will County Board approved $200,000 for immigration services in the FY2026 budget,” and that “the County Executive signed it into law on November 24, 2025, as Ordinance No. 25-311.”

“Nine months later, none of it has been released,” he wrote. “That funding was meant to help residents navigate a legal system that’s difficult to face without help. Every month it sits unused is a month someone missed a deadline or went without legal assistance they were promised. This isn’t a new request. It’s a decision the Board already made.”

David Szafraniec wrote: “Please release the already approved $200,000 in immigration services funds so they can start to be used to help immigrants in Will County. If there are issues with releasing the funds now, please publicly address them.” Brian Esposito wrote in support on Sept. 3, arguing that “that money needs to be released to county organizations that can help, or even law firms that will do the work pro bono to the clients.”

No resolution concerning the immigration services appropriation appeared on the Sept. 17 agenda, and neither the county executive nor staff addressed it on the record during the meeting. In a separate exchange earlier in the meeting, during discussion of the ARPA fund wind-down, Bertino-Tarrant told the board the county is “working very hard with the agencies to ensure that they are able to appropriately spend those dollars” and that award information is posted online.

A Second Stalled Allocation

Ogalla paired her remarks with a related complaint about board authority. She said the board had also voted to direct cannabis revenue to the county clerk’s office for a ballot inserter, and that the Executive Committee — which she described as the board’s agenda-setting committee under its rules — voted in July to place the item on a Finance Committee agenda.

“That did not happen in August. It did not happen in September,” Ogalla said. “It’s pretty unfortunate that when this board votes, it really doesn’t mean anything. There’s no enforcement. Our voice, our vote should matter.”

Finance Committee Chair Sherry Newquist responded during the comment period that the clerk’s office had been invited to a special finance committee meeting the previous Wednesday to discuss the ballot sorter “but they were unfortunately unable to attend.” Addressing County Clerk Annette Parker, who was present, Newquist said: “Just want to make sure that you guys realize you’re welcome to come back to a future meeting and we can have that conversation.”

In closing remarks, Bertino-Tarrant said she welcomes feedback and is not claiming the county has no room to improve, but objected to what she called false narratives and said she would always protect staff. “I don’t dismiss the need to ask questions,” she said, noting her eight years in the legislative branch. “I don’t like it when it becomes accusatory.”