A Will County Board member is expressing frustration that funding for an immigration services group has not been disbursed, but the county executive’s office claims there is not sufficient documentation to award the grant money.
Board member Destinee Ortiz, a Romeoville Democrat, said the Will County Board voted 12-10 last November to give $200,000 to Illinois Workers in Action for immigration services using a portion of its cannabis tax revenue.
At the time, Ortiz sided with the 11 board Republicans to approve the budget, a 0% tax levy and eight different programs to receive cannabis revenue.
Illinois Workers in Action, a nonprofit organization, has locations in Chicago, Bolingbrook and Aurora and serves the Will County area, Ortiz said. Before the board approved the allocation, the group’s organizers spoke before both the Republican and Democratic caucuses, Ortiz said, which is also reflected in the caucuses’ minutes.
Ortiz was the Democratic representative who helped review various funding proposals for use of the county’s cannabis tax dollars. She and Republican Vince Logan of Joliet presented the recommendations to the full County Board, which had the ultimate say. Ortiz said they looked at a mix of prior and new initiatives to award funding.
Nearly 10 months later, Ortiz said the county executive’s office has not dispersed the grant for Illinois Workers in Action.
“When the County Board approves a specific cannabis appropriation and the executive signs it into the county budget, what discretion does the executive’s office retain over how, and whether, that appropriation is implemented?” Ortiz said.
The County Executive’s Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant’s office said the County Board’s proposal lacked substance and the office cannot write a check for a handpicked organization. Funds have to be given for a specific purpose and are reimbursed after receipts are provided, so they aren’t used beyond the scope of their original intent, said Mike Theodore, a spokesman for the executive’s office.
The cannabis funding was approved at the 11th hour during a contentious budget session, Theodore said. What was voted on and approved was based off vague directions containing both typed and handwritten notes, including “IWA – legal defense for imigrants (sic) w legal status,” Theodore said.
The county executive has repeatedly asked board leadership to provide guidance on what this means and how they would like to proceed, he said.
Illinois Workers in Action wasn’t known to county employees, and there is no organization with the IWA acronym that is authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide legal services for immigrants, Theodore said. Concerns were also raised on how much funds were devoted to salaries, he said.
“The county executive office has been working to interpret this document and to fund programs that have already met the more rigorous standards applied towards cannabis funding by past boards, such as supporting internal programs that support Will County families in various communities,” he said.
Theodore said last fall’s cannabis allocation wasn’t a thought out or transparent process.
Giselle Rodriguez of Illinois Workers in Action in August 2025 during a protest at the Veterans Memorial in North Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Giselle Rodriguez, executive director for Illinois Workers in Action, said organizers answered questions from County Board members at both caucuses in November. The group has helped nearly 31,000 people throughout the state so far since January, with the majority in the Chicago suburbs, she said.
“The need has been growing so much here,” Rodriguez said. “This money will go back to the community.”
The organization incorporated in 2021 and divides its work into four buckets, including programs devoted to labor justice, immigration and public health as well as advocacy.
Rodriguez said the organization helps employees address harassment and discrimination in the workplace, connects individuals with attorneys for free immigration consultations, conducts “know your rights” trainings and helps community members prepare for potential encounters with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They also hold pop-up food distribution events, mental health presentations, parenting classes and English as a second language classes, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the organization relies on grant funding, so they are not trying to circumvent Will County’s process and are happy to apply for those funds, submit a proposal or provide other documentation.
“It’s been really frustrating,” she said. “I don’t have answers.”
Ortiz said she would like the fiscal year 2026 allocations to be resolved soon now that fiscal year 2027 budget discussions are underway.
“We can’t move forward unless we take care of this first,” she said.
Organizations that received past cannabis dollars were asked to come back to the board and show where it went and how it affected the community, Ortiz said.
Helping immigrants is an important issue in Will County, especially in communities with a sizable minority population such as Joliet, Bolingbrook and Romeoville, she said.
“These are our neighbors,” Ortiz said. “These are people in Will County who you know, people who have businesses, people who have come here as children, law-abiding taxpayers but need means to navigate the system. At the end of the day, we are talking about real people in our communities.”
State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, said in a letter last month to Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant that multiple constituents have reached out about their concerns that the funds had not been released. The county has a legal obligation to appropriate funds approved by the County Board, she wrote.
Jim Richmond, the County Board’s Republican leader, said he is concerned when something is supposed to be completed but hasn’t. The executive’s office has to implement the actions of the board, he said.
The County Board in July created an ad hoc cannabis revenue review committee to discuss parameters for the allocation and dispersement of revenue collected by Will County through the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. The group met for the first time Aug. 11.
Richmond said the committee could provide more transparency, policies, procedures and guardrails for the cannabis fund.
The state does not have rules on how cannabis money has to be allocated, but Will County has historically used the fund on public health and safety initiatives. Some counties simply add cannabis revenue to their general fund, the Will County state’s attorney’s office has said.
Last November, the Joliet Unity Movement denounced the County Board’s vote on how it was spending cannabis funds, saying it redirected the tax revenue away from the communities disproportionately affected by past drug policies. Leaders said these funds were created to repair harm in neighborhoods historically affected by mass
incarceration, inequitable drug policies and generational disinvestment.
Amy Sanchez, director of operations for the Joliet Unity Movement, said this would be the first distribution of cannabis funds for immigration-related services.
The board also voted in November to allocate $335,000 to the Children’s Advocacy Center, $440,000 to the housing stabilization program, $170,000 for workforce services, $260,000 to the clerk’s office for election equipment, $200,000 for the Regional Office of Education for additional bullet-resistant glass, $50,000 for food stability and $350,000 for scholarships for children who are dealing with loved ones’ incarceration.
Ortiz said the clerk’s office has also not been given the money for its equipment. The clerk’s chief of staff, Kimberly Fladhammer, spoke before a board committee in July to reiterate the office’s interest, but said the new equipment would not be available for the November election.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter.