Employer Hired Me Into Remote Role Knowingly Planning To Change The Role To Onsite Shortly After Starting To Get A "wider Candidate Pool" - Any Options For Me Legally? (il)

I recently accepted a new position. I was not actually job searching, but rather someone at this company reached out to me on LinkedIn wanting me to apply. They advertised on the job posting and in their messages to me that the role was remote. I recently became a single parent following the loss of my wife and my ~40 minute commute wasn't great with regard to time with my daughter, so the remote role sounded great and that specifically is what pushed me over the ledge to apply.

During the process I asked in writing to the hiring manager and also verified verbally during the interview what their travel/onsite expectation was. I was told: "Great question. We consider this role to be fully remote, but we do have a two-day quarterly planning meeting that is nice if you can attend in person, however, if you were unable to attend for whatever reason we could easily facilitate a ZOOM to attend remotely. We also have a summer picnic and annual holiday party that totally optional but would be great to attend in person (and bring your family).

After 9 weeks, I was told last week that the position was being transitioned to onsite because of a change in direction. When I've asked why I've received 3 different answers (visibility to stakeholders, HR, and believing the team will perform better if everyone is onsite.) I had received zero negative feedback about my performance (and in fact ample positive feedback) so I asked what the concern is with team performance, and my manager then backtracked and blamed HR again.

Now here is the nail in the coffin: this sucked, but I was not reading into it. However a few days ago I was asked to help out as a member of an interview panel while my boss is on vacation for 2 weeks, and someone added me to a hiring chat on the company chat system. In the chat history I found messages about the position I had gotten. Manager posted a link to the job posting, and someone pointed out that it had an error and said "remote." He said it was intentional because remote would give a wider candidate pool and then they could change the position to onsite later once someone was hired. Someone sent a message saying this seems unfair to candidates if the remote might not be remote long-term but there was no follow-up. There was similar follow-up chat while discussing me specifically after I was interviewed.

So now I have two problems: (1) The commute is about 1 hour and 40 minutes one way, which is not doable for me and (2) I don't think I really want to work for someone who would use this tactic. So, I am pretty much now needing to look for a new job again. However, if I leave I have to repay the sign-on-bonus I was paid as well as pay back for 2 trainings that they put me through. I can pay it, but ultimately here I am feeling extremely frustrated. This company came to me and recruited me on the guise that this was a remote position. They came to me, not the other way around, and now it was a bait and switch.

I'm guessing I probably have no recourse, but figure it does not hurt to ask before assuming I'm SOL. Appreciate any advice.