Politics

ICE Strike Team, Troops Could Reach Chicago in 48 Hours: Gov. JB Pritzker

Gov. JB Pritzker warned on Wednesday that a strike team of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops or other “armed military personnel” could hit Chicago’s streets as soon as Friday or Saturday.

“What we’re hearing is that they’ll be assembled, ready to go on Friday, and that they would begin actions on Saturday” and continue through the weekend, Pritzker told reporters after visiting Metropolitan Peace Academy, which coordinates violence prevention efforts on Chicago’s West Side.

“I’m deeply concerned, uncertain, about what the future looks like at the moment, but as you can see, fighting like hell to make sure we don’t fall into the abyss as a result of unconstitutional actions by the president,” Pritzker told the violence prevention workers.

As many as 300 federal agents are expected to gather at Naval Station Great Lakes, which is about 35 miles outside of the city, before being sent to Chicago, officials said.

State and local law enforcement agents will not assist federal immigration agents conduct those raids, but will be prepared to respond to any protests or unrest, Pritzker said.

“We’ve asked for the public to be ready with your iPhone,” Pritzker said. “Any way that you can to record what’s going on in their neighborhoods … because we think that’s the best way to demonstrate what ICE is doing if they’re doing something wrong, or to keep them honest and doing the right thing, because they know they’re being watched.”

Pritzker said he did not have any additional information about whether the Trump administration will send Texas National Guard troops to Chicago to assist the immigration enforcement efforts and dismissed statements from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office that his statements were inaccurate.

“I’m not suggesting that I am absolutely certain of whether or not the Texas National Guard will in fact end up in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “What I know is that we’ve been told by people who seem to have the credentials to know that that is what is happening. If he wants to deny it, the governor of Texas, let’s just take into account that he has not been a good actor at all toward the state of Illinois. So, I don’t really trust anything that he is saying in this moment.

Nearly 52,000 migrants arrived in Chicago starting in 2022, many on buses paid for by Abbott, a Republican, as part of a concerted effort to divide Democratic voters and boost President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Shortly before Pritzker addressed reporters, Trump told reporters he was still considering what course of action to take in Chicago and other cities.

“We’re making a determination now — do we go to Chicago, or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite tough, quite bad?” Trump said, one day after telling reporters the National Guard was “going in” to Chicago.

Despite the confusing messages coming from the president, a massive influx of immigration agents appear to be on their way to Chicago to conduct raids designed to make good on Trump’s promise to conduct the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

In June, a similar blitz triggered widespread protests in Los Angeles that turned violent at times. Trump deployed the National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in what he said was an effort to quell unrest.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Trump officials violated a federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act by using the military to fight crime in Los Angeles during those protests.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and Pritzker have repeatedly said it would be illegal and unconstitutional for the president to deploy the National Guard to Chicago over their objections.

Both the mayor and the governor have repeatedly dismissed the president’s latest pledge to combat crime as cover for an unconstitutional federal overreach.

During the first eight months of the year, homicides are down 31%, as compared with the same period a year ago, reaching the lowest level since 2014, according to Chicago Police Department data. In addition, the number of people shot has dropped 36% so far this year, according to CPD data.

Pritzker credited that drop on Wednesday to the impact of community violence intervention programs that are designed to stop prevent crimes from being committed. The governor has repeatedly blasted Trump for slashing funding for those programs, saying that proves the president is “not serious about fighting crime.”

If Trump makes good on the latest in a long series of threats against Chicago and its leaders, Chicago would join Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and become the third American city to be occupied by federal troops deployed over the objections of local leaders.

Just days after taking office in January, Trump sent teams of ICE agents to Chicago as part of ramped-up immigration enforcement efforts across the country.

Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Trump’s “border czar,” told reporters after those raids that efforts by Chicago officials and immigration advocates to educate undocumented immigrants had made deportation efforts “very difficult.”

“For instance, Chicago (is) very well educated,” Homan said in January on CNN. “They call it ‘know your rights.’ I call it how to escape arrest, ... how to hide from ICE.”

Homan said he was willing to play a “cat and mouse game” until “every one of them gone.”

In the face of the most recent threats from the Trump administration, city officials have ramped up efforts to help educate Chicagoans about their rights and offer services to those who may be facing deportation.

The city launched the “Protecting Chicago Initiative” on Saturday in an effort to ensure that all Chicagoans know their rights and directs the Chicago Law Department to pursue all possible legal challenges to the president’s actions and respond to the violation of Chicagoans’ civil rights.

“We will use every single tool at our disposal, including the courts,” Johnson said, promising every part of Chicago government is ready to “stand up to tyranny.”

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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