Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker confirmed federal immigration agents will be coming to Chicago soon, citing a phone call he received from the federal government.
In an exclusive interview with NBC Chicago, Pritzker said after weeks of hearing no communication from the Trump administration, his team received a phone call, but not from the president himself. The phone call, made to Illinois State Police, came from Gregory Bovino, the border patrol sector chief for the El Centro, Texas sector. Bovino oversaw the immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles earlier this summer.
“[They said] they will begin operations here sometime in the coming week,” Pritzker told NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern. “That – literally after two weeks of all this talk about troops on the ground – that’s the first time we’ve heard from the federal government on this.”
“Did they give you a number?” Ahern asked.
“They did not,” Pritzker said.
A report from The New York Times said Homeland Security officials requested to use Naval Station Great Lakes near North Chicago for their operations, which would include space for 250 department personnel plus a “Tactical Operations Center” and an “Incident Command Post,” as well as bathrooms, laundry, parking for 140 vehicles and storage space for medical supplies and weapons like rubber bullets and tear gas.
That appears to be separate from President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to send in National Guard troops to help solve what he says is Chicago’s crime problem. Questions remain about whether troops will come to Illinois, even to the state’s leader.
“We don’t know if the National Guard is coming or not coming. We know ICE is coming. And ICE has the responsibility to enforce immigration laws. They shouldn’t do it the way they were doing it in Los Angeles. But they have that responsibility, and they should do it in the proper way, not the way Tom Homan is having them do it, or Kristi Noem,” Pritzker said.
Trump made comments about Chicago on his social media platform Truth Social twice Tuesday morning. First, he cited the high crime numbers in the city over Labor Day weekend, writing: “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far. Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC. Chicago will be safe again, and soon.”
The president then wrote, “CHICAGO IS THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!”
Pritzker rebuked the president’s claims.
“Donald Trump obviously has Chicago on his mind seemingly every day now. And they are clearly going to send ICE officials and officers to the neighborhoods,” Pritzker said. “I hope that they if they come here, that they will not act as they did in Los Angeles, which is provocative. But unfortunately, the guy who is leading that effort here in Chicago is the same one that led the effort in Los Angeles. So, I’m not optimistic.”
Pritzker was hoping to travel to Japan for a trade mission at the end of the week, but with the threat of ICE agents and potentially the National Guard coming to Chicago, he said he may have to postpone the trip.
“You’ve been already told that?” Ahern asked.
“Yes,” Pritzker confirmed.
Pritzker said crime has gone down in Chicago, and if the president wants to bring them down further, he can stop defunding crime prevention, and also help the state hire more FBI and ATF agents.
“Can the National Guard in Illinois be called when you haven’t called them?” Ahern asked Pritzker.
“They can be. They can be federalized, but the purposes only can be, according to the law, for them to be sent overseas to protect us, which our National Guard does all the time, or if there’s an emergency. Truly an emergency on the ground, an insurrection on the ground,” he said.
Pritzker noted that Trump could also call the National Guard from another state, where the governor might be more sympathetic to his cause. However, Pritzker said, that would also be illegal, and the court system seems to be in agreement with Pritzker’s assessment. On Tuesday morning, a federal judge said Trump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles was illegal.
Posse Comitatus is an act that was passed in the 1878 that, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law.
“The president is ignoring that law, and then he’s making up reasons why it’s OK that he could send troops. So, I’m very deeply concerned that he’s going to have ICE come here and cause the same mayhem that they caused in Los Angeles so that he can say, ‘Oh, look, there’s mayhem on the ground. I’m going to have to call in National Guard,'” Pritzker said.
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