Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” warned the Trump administration that his local law enforcement “will stand up for those law-abiding, undocumented people” facing deportation.
Host Dana Bash said, “How are you preparing, particularly if they do target schools, churches and small businesses as they are now allowed to do?”
Pritzker said, “Well, let me start by being clear that when we’re talking about violent criminals who have been convicted and who are undocumented, we don’t want them in our state. We want them out of the country. We hope they do get deported. And if that’s who they’re picking up, we’re all for it. They show up with a warrant, and we’re going to hand over people who are in our prisons or in our jails who fit that description. Now, what they’re also doing, though, and it’s quite disturbing, is they’re going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here who may have been here for a decade or two decades, and they’re often our neighbors and our friends. And why are we going after them? These are not people who are causing problems in our country. What we need is a path to citizenship for them. We need to secure our border. We need to get rid of the violent criminals, but we also need to protect people, at least the residents of Illinois and all across the nation, who are just doing what we hope that immigrants will do.
He added, “We also have a law on the books in Illinois that says that our local law enforcement will stand up for those law-abiding, undocumented people in our state who are doing the right thing. And we’re not going to help federal officials just drag them away because somebody pointed at them and said, oh, that person’s brown or that person’s not from here. Check it out. Maybe they’re undocumented.”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN
