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As some Illinois Democrats look to extend protections to immigrants in response to President Donald Trump, Gov. Bruce Rauner declined to take a position on the idea Friday.

Asked if he would support legislation to make it harder for federal authorities to access information about immigrants living in Illinois, Rauner didn't say yes or no, just that he is "very pro comprehensive immigration reform" and wants the state "to continue to be welcoming and diverse."

Legislation under consideration at the state Capitol would allow schools, medical facilities and places of worship to decline access to federal immigration authorities, and it would limit cooperation and communication between local police and immigration officials. The plans were introduced as part of a broader "sanctuary state" effort to extend statewide some protections like those in Chicago and Cook County, where local laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking about residents' immigration status.

The legislation is sponsored by Democrats, and their party controls the General Assembly. Pressed to provide his position on the sanctuary state idea Friday, Rauner declined. "I've answered it," he said. "I've said what I'm going to say."

Previously, Rauner avoided directly discussing Chicago and other locations that have declared "sanctuary" status from immigration authorities in a meeting with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, but he made it clear he opposed it in the absence of comprehensive immigration changes.

"Emotion is guiding too much of the conversation," he said then. "The system is not working, and we shouldn't try to deal with it on a piecemeal basis."

The question-and-answer session with reporters came a day after a federal appeals court declined to reinstate Trump's executive order barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the U.S.

The travel ban, and the sanctuary state effort, could be tricky political issues for the Republican governor, who is looking ahead to a 2018 re-election campaign and some Democrats are have tried linking Rauner to Trump. Trump won the November election after saying he would crack down on illegal immigration.

Rauner was critical of Trump's travel ban, calling it "rash" and "overly broad" but has said the issue should be resolved by the courts.

"I hope that Congress and the federal government can come together and get comprehensive immigration reform," Rauner said Friday. "Our immigration system is broken, it's not working. And to deal with it piecemeal or small scale isn't the right way to do it. We should have comprehensive immigration reform."

Trump has threatened to withhold federal money from sanctuary governments, including cities, and the Illinois proposal joins efforts in California and New York trying to resist Trump's immigration policies by granting new protections to immigrants.

That's led Mayor Rahm Emanuel's to repeatedly reassure the city's Latinos that Chicago should remain a sanctuary city, particularly young Dreamers who benefited from former President Barack Obama's executive actions that offered legal protection to about 742,000 people nationwide who were brought to the U.S. as children and stayed here illegally.

Emanuel drew attention to the issue again Friday when he hosted the mayors of three major Mexican cities at City Hall Mexico City Mayor Miguel ngel Mancera, Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Alfaro and Juarez City Mayor Hctor Armando Cabada Alvdrez. The event presented Emanuel an opportunity to try to boost his bona fides with the city's Latinos as his three Mexican counterparts each called the mayor "courageous" in standing up for immigrants.

Collectively, Emanuel noted, the four mayors represent 15 million constituents who need to be served regardless of current international relations.

"As the politics of our national governments become more choppy, those relationships of what we refer to as building bridges, not walls, are even more important than ever before," said Emanuel, who did not refer to Trump by name during the 30-minute news conference. "We can't wait, respectfully, for our national governments. We can't determine our futures based on how the wind is blowing at any one given time on national politics, which is why we're here to reassert our friendship and the depth of that friendship."

Emanuel repeatedly said he's had a friendship with Mancera that "pre-dates this moment in time in politics," and that the Mexico City mayor requested Friday's meeting which was focused on building business and cultural partnerships. Mancera has indicated he would like to run for president of Mexico in 2018, and he used Friday's news conference to voice his opposition to Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border.

"We have a great amount of communication bridges that have been built between Mexico and the United States ... what the federal government would be doing is not building a wall, but rather destroying bridges that already exist," Mancera told reporters through a translator. "Today, we're making sure people who live here from Mexico and Mexico City understand that local governments are going to work together to make a difference, and that as long as understanding is not reached at the federal level, we can build very important agreements and understandings at the local level."

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com

bruthhart@chicagotribune.com

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Rauner dodges on sanctuary state issue, Emanuel hosts Mexican mayors - Chicago Tribune