Politics
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on the Trump Administration, Birthright Citizenship and DEI
In the six weeks since President Donald Trump has returned to the White House, nearly 100 legal challenges have been filed against the administration’s executive orders, according to the digital law and policy journal Just Security.
Illinois has joined in on the conversations that range from the federal funding freeze to diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” to talk about how his office’s priorities have shifted under a new era of American leadership.
On Mayor Brandon Johnson’s upcoming congressional hearings on Chicago’s sanctuary city status:
“We’ve (Illinois) actually been sued by the Department of Justice, along with the city of Chicago and the County of Cook with regards to our Trust Act, and the city and the county with regards to their sanctuary city ordinances. We filed a motion to dismiss today, and basically the same advice that we give to law enforcement is that local and state law enforcement offices cannot be commandeered by the federal government to do immigration work. We’ve been sued on this before — the 2nd Circuit has ruled on it before that the federal government cannot commandeer local governments to do the federal government’s work.
On a provision from the Affordable Care Act, the Preventative Services Task Force, having its constitutionality viewed by the Supreme Court:
“Throughout the country, the Affordable Care Act has provided access to health care with a focus on preventative health care — not having people seek their health care in emergency rooms and be the beneficiaries of primary care and preventative health care.”
On the federal funding freeze:
“At the outset, the funding freezes from OMB were illegal. They violate the Constitution. Congress has the power of the purse, and Article 1 Section 8, sets it out in the Spending Clause. We’ve filed suit and got the injunction, and we’ve since filed motions to enforce because there has been evidence of violation of the court’s order. So we will continue to take action.”
On birthright citizenship:
“I myself was born to a mother, not yet naturalized, a Haitian immigrant. I am a birthright citizen. That’s again, clear language in our Constitution. It was a Reagan-appointed judge that pointed out that it was a blatantly unconstitutional action and that he could not understand how any member of the bar would come before a court to try to defend such an action (dissolving birthright citizenship), so even the most conservative judges cannot twist the plain language of our Constitution and the laws that Congress have set as well.”
On DEI:
“The federal government is suggesting things that are not factual with regards to the law. The case of SFFA v. Harvard weighed in on whether or not race can be used as a factor in admissions, and so that’s settled. I may have disagreed with the opinion, but it is the law, and I respect it as the law, but it cannot be stretched into all of the different things that this administration has suggested to try to outlaw any sort of diversity training, to outlaw any affinity groups or employee resource groups within companies, to try to outlaw outreach to communities that are underrepresented. All of those things are legal, and there have been studies that have supported that diversity is not only a right and moral thing to do, but it’s a good business interest thing to embrace. So I advise those corporations to not be misled and not be intimidated into backing away from initiatives that are legal, backing away from the nomenclature even of diversity equity, inclusion. Somehow DEI or these words have been made out to be evil words, and that is nonsensical.”
