A federal judge has mandated that an Illinois police officer be reinstated, chastising the Trump administration for its “brazen disregard” of the officer’s job security amid allegations of his illegal residency in the United States.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jorge Luis Alonso issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of Radule Bojovic against the Trump administration. This directive prevents the Department of Homeland Security from interfering with Bojovic’s position at the Hanover Park Police Department while his immigration case is ongoing. Bojovic, who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 12 years, is at the center of this legal battle.

According to the judge’s ruling, Bojovic, originally from Montenegro, arrived in the United States with his family in 2014. His father subsequently submitted an “Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal,” which included Bojovic, then 16. With the application pending for over a decade, Bojovic sought and obtained employment authorization from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with the latest extension valid until September 2025.

In this period, Bojovic underwent training and served with the Hanover Park Police Department. The department publicly celebrated his recent graduation from the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy, noting he was about to embark on a rigorous 15-week field training program to further prepare him for his role in the community.

However, in October 2025, during a federal immigration sweep dubbed Operation Midway Blitz that targeted Chicago and its surrounding areas, Bojovic was taken into custody. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced his arrest, claiming he had overstayed his visa by over a decade and was unlawfully in possession of firearms due to his status as an “illegal alien.”

The federal agencies seized the moment to criticize Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump, attributing what they considered a severe oversight to his leadership.

“Pritzker doesn’t just allow violent illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois’s communities, he allows illegal aliens to work as sworn police officers,” then-Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “What kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns?”

“This is just the latest instance of Governor JB Pritzker’s continued refusal to abide by federal laws, jeopardizing the welfare of Illinois residents,” the ICE press release added.

Following the officer’s arrest, he was detained for two weeks before being released on bond, the judge recounts. He returned to work in November, even as the federal government initiated removal proceedings against him.

On Dec. 11, 2025, USCIS issued a “Notice of Intent to Revoke” (NOIR) regarding his employment authorization, despite the authorization being renewed just months earlier. USCIS contended that Bojovic had been removed from his father’s asylum application eight days earlier, though Bojovic “claims that this is untrue and/or erroneous.”

In January, Bojovic was notified that his employment authorization was indeed revoked, “stating that he had not responded to the NOIR and reiterating that he had been removed from his father’s asylum application on December 3, 2025.” Bojovic insisted that he did respond to the notice — on time and via FedEx — and that reply, according to the judge, “correctly explained that the factual basis for revocation asserted in the NOIR was incorrect.”

Bojovic subsequently filed a complaint to have his work authorization reinstated and moved for a TRO so that he could go back to work.

He says that not being able to work will result in a “complete loss of income” and “will cause him to suffer the risk of irreparable harm due to damage to his career prospects and his inability to meet his financial obligations,” the judge recounts.

The Trump administration, however, dismissed those concerns, arguing “economic harms are not irreparable and damage to career prospects is merely speculative.”

Alonso, a Barack Obama appointee, appeared to be taken aback by the federal government’s response.

“Defendants are shockingly cavalier about the consequences that may flow from the loss of a person’s livelihood and the interruption of a fledgling career,” he wrote, adding that a response brief from the administration to Bojovic’s complaint “is most notable for what it does not say: it does not defend USCIS’s revocation decision on its own terms. That silence speaks volumes.”

“Taking all the facts and circumstances into consideration, and accounting for the high likelihood of success, the equities weigh rather decisively in Plaintiff’s favor,” Alonso concludes. “Plaintiff is a public servant who has not been shown to present any threat to the community (quite the opposite, if anything), and the Court fails to see what the government gains by suspending his employment without pay based on what appears likely to be, so far as the parties have shown at this early stage, a legal and/or factual error.”

A status hearing on this case is scheduled for Thursday morning.