Reporter: Yesterday, witnesses reported that Chicago police officers were assisting ICE agents in a mass arrest in the South Loop area. Does that violate the state’s SAFE-T Act [sic], and if so, are there protections to safeguard against this in the future?
Pritzker: Let’s be clear, the Chicago police followed the law. Whenever ICE is engaged in raids like this, if there’s a situation where there is a court-ordered warrant for somebody’s arrest, then it is absolutely appropriate for police to be engaged.
If there’s not a court-ordered warrant, then it isn’t. But those are the rules in the state of Illinois. We’ve always followed the law. We’ve tried to make sure that our police are focused on deterring violent crime and not engage in kind of administrative deportation proceedings like the ones that ICE are now turning into something criminal.
Reporter: Governor, can you speak more to that? Because these people that are told they need to come and check in, and ICE turns around and [arrests them].
Pritzker: Look, from the beginning of this administration, there have been inappropriate and sometimes, I would argue, illegal moves on the part of ICE. And it’s important to me that they follow the law, the federal law, and that our local law enforcement are following law in an appropriate way.
Reporter: Do you have concerns this may have been illegal and inappropriate in the ways they conducted these arrests?
Pritzker: Certainly inappropriate, and I mean, anybody can see that. I think anybody who watched the videos can see that. And even there were bystanders who were protesting, not interfering, but simply protesting and expressing their First Amendment rights and freedoms, and yet those ICE officers were pushing people out of the way in a fashion that I don’t think any of us think is right. And I have to say they overstep constantly, one time after another at the federal level, and I think they need to make sure that they’re following the law, just like we do.
Reporter: Governor, regarding your Washington, D.C. trip next week, the GOP-run House Oversight Committee is a stage for the members, not the witnesses, to score political points. How are you approaching this? Is this to make a case against Donald Trump and Republicans aligned to recreate 1930s-era Nazism in Germany, or to merely defend Illinois?
Pritzker: : Look, I’ve been asked to speak to the committee. I’m happy to go do so. Happy to tell them how we here in Illinois have laws on the books that are a result, by the way, of their failure in Washington to deal with comprehensive immigration reform—to have immigration laws that are appropriate for letting people in who will work for a living, who will follow the law and so on. We have many people who are in the United States today who may not have the proper documentation, but they’ve been here for decades following the law. They’re good neighbors. They’re good people. We need immigration laws that allow for those people to stay and for violent criminals to be thrown out.
Reporter: Do you think there’s any connection between the timing of these hearings next week to these kinds of questionable arrests…
Pritzker: I think it depends on the questions that they ask. Certainly, I’m not there to lecture to them. I’m there to take questions from them and respond to them. Presumably, the theory is that they’re having this hearing because they’d like to learn more about what we’re doing in the states.
I think there may be members on that committee who are simply there for a dog and pony show, who simply want to grandstand in front of the cameras. I hope not. That’s inappropriate, and I’m going there in a serious matter, to give them my views about how we’re managing through a problem that’s been created for the states by the federal government.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 1:32 pm:
Some of those questions were leading from unsupported conjecture
- Stephanie Kollmann - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 1:33 pm:
==Let’s be clear, the Chicago police followed the law.==
I don’t understand how or why he would say that.
- SwSider - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 1:39 pm:
Guv. Word Salad strikes again.
He needs to get better speaking about tough issues off the cuff.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 1:40 pm:
Pritzker is real real good in talking to press. DC should be a fun watch
- P. - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 1:42 pm:
Right. If the ICE agents are doing inappropriate or sometimes illegal activities in his mind and ICE officers were roughing up innocent bystanders why was it ok for Chicago police to engage with ICE and help them?
- clec dcn - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 1:47 pm:
I hope the Gov does not run again and maybe he will just fade away. Not much he says is relevant to what is going on to me but a thorn he wants to be.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 2:12 pm:
==Not much he says is relevant to what is going on to me but a thorn he wants to be==
Then talk to the Republicans. They asked him to testify.
As for your “thorn” comment, he is doing exactly what I would want him to do - push back on a lawless and immoral administration.
- Leslie K - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 2:52 pm:
==Let’s be clear, the Chicago police followed the law.==
=I don’t understand how or why he would say that.=
I’m guessing because that’s the information he has at this time? Although I agree it might have been better if he explicitly provided such a caveat.
- clec dcn - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 3:53 pm:
@demoralized, I guess I see it differently from a moral point. PJ pushes abortion and now looks like he would help with assisted suicide. I find that immoral and I don’t see what is so immoral about the present administration.
- Remember the Alamo II - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 4:09 pm:
=== I find that immoral and I don’t see what is so immoral about the present administration. ===
Then you are a part of the problem in this country.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 4:17 pm:
==PJ pushes abortion and now looks like he would help with assisted suicide.==
Doesn’t push abortion. He wants to ensure that the government doesn’t tell women what to do with their bodies. And as for assisted suicide I wholeheartedly support that. Why shouldn’t a terminally ill person get to choose how they die? Why make them suffer? It’s immoral to mandate that they suffer. Doesn’t harm you in the slightest.
==I don’t see what is so immoral about the present administration.==
I don’t even know where to begin with that comment. I can list dozens and dozens of examples. The whole immigration “enforcement” program is a prime example. It’s cruel and immoral the way they are going about this. This isn’t about just criminals like they argue. Because if it was they wouldn’t be rounding up families, including American citizen children, and shipping them out of the country without due process.
- In the weeds - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 5:13 pm:
I love that the constant bad-faith attempts to blame the SAFE-T Act for every single thing that happens anywhere in the state have culminated in reporters now confusing it with the TRUST Act. Anything Republicans don’t like is now the SAFE-T Act, and repealing it will solve every problem!
- Gravitas - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 6:12 pm:
“I don’t understand how or why he would say that…”
My guess is that Governor Pritzker was briefed on the subject and the persons picked up by ICE all had final orders for removal after their cases had been processed by the immigration judges. These individuals were due to be deported.
- Bob - Thursday, Jun 5, 25 @ 11:55 pm:
First question shows the reporter doesn’t know the difference between the SAFE-T Act and the Trust Act. Which is pretty typical.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 6, 25 @ 12:37 am:
===Which is pretty typical==
Yep.