* Hmm…

Sen. Bernie Sanders broke with much of his party in a recent podcast appearance, praising President Donald Trump’s border policy while criticizing President Biden’s handling of immigration.

“So long as we have nation-states, you’ve got to have borders,” Sanders said. “If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation.”

He went on to argue that securing the U.S. border “ain’t that hard to do,” and declared that “Trump did a better job. I don’t like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border Biden didn’t do it.”

Video is here…

If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation, right? In a sense. So has historically, the United States done well on the Democrats and Republicans protecting the border? The answer is no. Trump did a better job. I don’t like Trump. You know, we should have a secure border, and it ain’t that hard to do. Biden didn’t do it. Those before him did not do it. We should have a secure border period.

* Gov. JB Pritzker on Fox News last week…

Bret Baier: What’s the best thing that President Trump has done since being in office?

Pritzker: Well, that’s a good question. I think. Look, one thing I can say is that I asked President Biden, and wrote a very public letter, to deal with some of the problems at the border. We were seeing tens of thousands of people being sent by Governor Abbott to Chicago, and we weren’t getting any help, really, from the federal government.

Here’s what I would say, since President Trump has taken office, we don’t have the problem that existed before with people coming across the board. What I would suggest, though, is there’s one more thing he could have done. He took control of the Congress. He’s got control of the judiciary. He’s got control of the White House. [cross talk] Let’s let’s just say this. He could have proposed comprehensive immigration reform and gotten it passed. He could have done that. He hasn’t done that. Why? Why does he want to send troops in? Why does he want to send ice and CDP in? Why not get immigration reform in place that we can all rally around? Look, I like that. We have borders. We need borders, right? You don’t have a country if you don’t have borders. But let’s deal with immigration with an actual bill that Democrats and Republicans can rally around. We’ve seen it before. It’s been done before, but it’s been 40 years. Let’s finally do it.

* Meanwhile, speaking of Pritzker agreeing with Trump…

Mayor Brandon Johnson urged Gov. JB Pritzker Friday to weigh allowing Chicago public school students to learn from home because ICE agents are arresting parents and students on their way to and from schools.

Pritzker later took a dim view of the idea, saying kids belong in classrooms and pointing to ways schools and residents have already taken steps to protect students and their parents from federal immigration raids. […]

“Remember, very importantly, I think one thing we learned during COVID is that remote learning really has a deleterious effect on kids’ ability to get the kind of education they need. So we’re going to do everything we can to keep kids in school, where they are safer.”

ABC 7…

The stepped up ICE activity on the North Side disrupting the school day at Burr Elementary and other schools as multiple arrests played out on nearby streets.

CPS parents and 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack confirmed a handful of schools in the Bucktown-Wicker Park area were placed on soft lockdown. That meant no outdoor recess, in response to ICE arrests in the neighborhood.

“The kids aren’t playing outside because there’s been a huge amount of ICE presence in the neighborhood, just driving up and down the streets, just kind of terrorizing the neighborhood,” CPS parent Nicole Van Haperbeke said. “Why? It’s a peaceful, beautiful Friday.”

“Where the gassing happened, it happened right next to a school“…

“Teachers Scrambled After ICE Released Tear Gas Outside a Chicago Elementary School”…

Maria Heavener had opened the windows of her first-grade classroom to let in the unusually warm October breeze when the sound of helicopters, sirens, and a flood of notifications compelled her to slam them shut. During a raid on a nearby grocery store, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had hurled tear gas canisters into a parking lot across the street from Chicago’s Funston Elementary School, spreading a thick, choking smog toward the building while class was in session.