Governor Pritzker Comments on Federal Enforcement Plans
On CBS’s “Face the Nation” this past Sunday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker criticized President Donald Trump’s intention to send federal law enforcement to Chicago, referring to it as an “invasion of the US military.”
Partial Transcript Highlights:
Ed O’Keefe thanked Governor Pritzker for his time and tour, immediately shifting to discuss the Trump administration’s upcoming major immigration enforcement in Chicago. He mentioned that the Secretary of Homeland Security had cited Los Angeles as a model for this approach, which includes federal agents possibly working alongside National Guard forces to safeguard federal properties. O’Keefe then sought Pritzker’s reaction to these developments.
Pritzker expressed concern, highlighting past experiences where federal immigration enforcement, including ICE, had caused fear within the Chicago community, particularly in the Little Village neighborhood. He recounted how businesses had shut down and American citizens felt unsafe, fearing they could be taken off the streets. He emphasized that people in Chicago were well aware of what this could look like, and he hoped that military troops wouldn’t accompany ICE agents, stating that such actions would be illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts military involvement in civilian law enforcement.
O’Keefe queried whether federal judges might find the deployment acceptable if it was for the protection of those federal agents and if there was any plan to contest these actions legally.
Pritzker reiterated that military forces should not occupy American cities unless faced with a true emergency or uprising, which he argued was not the case now.
When asked if anyone in the administration had communicated with him regarding these plans, Pritzker indicated that no one had reached out. He described the situation as a planned invasion and stressed the necessity for coordination with local law enforcement. He believed that transparency about when and where operations would occur was essential to prevent unrest. Without this communication, he warned, tensions on the ground would only escalate.
