CHICAGO — A Chicago landlord has been ordered to pay more than $80,000 for threatening to call immigration agents on a couple who rented an apartment from him in 2020.
The couple sued their landlord under the state’s Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, which prohibits landlords from discriminating against or harassing a tenant based on the tenant’s actual or perceived immigration status, according to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which filed the suit in 2022 on behalf of the couple.
According to the lawsuit, the tenants had rented a basement apartment from Marco Antonio Contreras and his wife starting in 2017. However, on June 30, 2020, the landlords went to the unit seeking rent for the next month…