Suresh wins opening match at Neitzel Family Open

Dhakshineswar Suresh playing at the Neitzel Family Open in Champaign — Dhakshineswar Suresh lines up a shot in a long rally with Ryan Fishback at the 2025 Neitzel Family Open in their first-round match in the main draw on Tuesday. Suresh, ranked #790 in the ATP and #1376 in the ITF, defeated Fishback in at three-setter, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Suresh advanced to face Evan Bynoe in a second-round match scheduled to start at 10 am this morning at Atkins Tennis Center in Champaign. It will the be first meeting on the hard court between the two players.

Pritzker signs ‘squatter bill’ into law, real estate and property owner organizations support the bill

The goal of the bill is to make it easier for police to enforce criminal trespassing. State law does not explicitly give police the power to remove a person squatting in another person’s home without an eviction.

Squatter's home

Photo: Juan Giraudo/Unsplash

Until new law that takes effect in January, removing squatters from a home meant homeowners would have to go through the eviction process in Cook County court, which can take months. New law makes it easier to kick squatters off an owner's property.

by Ben Szalinski
Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD - A new law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday will make it easier for police to remove squatters who are illegally staying at a residence.

Squatters are people who enter and occupy a place for a long period of time with the intention of staying there, rather than a trespasser who enters without intentions to stay.

Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1563, which clarifies that a court-ordered eviction is not required for police to remove squatters from a person’s home. The bill stipulates that police can enforce criminal trespassing charges against a squatter.

“Squatters are a problem, and no one should have to get an eviction notice to remove squatters from their home,” bill sponsor Sen. Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago, said in a statement. “Law enforcement need to be able to do their job and return homes to their rightful owners.”

The bill passed through the General Assembly nearly unanimously, with only Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, voting against it. Law enforcement, real estate and property owner organizations supported the bill.

Collins, who represents much of the West Side of Chicago, said the bill came from concerns her constituents expressed and said the goal was to make it easier for police to enforce criminal trespassing. State law does not explicitly give police the power to remove a person squatting in another person’s home without an eviction.

A lawmaker’s encounter

Pritzker signed the bill after Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, had a first-hand encounter with squatters this summer. ABC7 Chicago reported last week squatters moved in next door to Evans’ Avalon Park home on Chicago’s South Side. The owners of the house had put the home up for sale, but last week found strangers living inside without buying or renting the home.

According to ABC7, Chicago Police told homeowners they couldn’t remove the squatters from the home and the homeowners would have to go through the eviction process in Cook County court, which can take months. Evans told ABC7 he would call Pritzker directly to ask him to sign the bill, which was sponsored in the House by Rep. Jawaharial Williams, D-Chicago.

“My community is full of hardworking, mortgage- and rent-paying citizens who believe in working, not stealing and scheming,” Evans said in a Facebook post Monday. “We don’t support crooks who prey on hardworking people.”

The law takes effect Jan. 1.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.