As President Donald Trump takes office this week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pledging to uphold state laws relating to immigration amid White House pressures.
Trump came into office promising to undertake deportation operations and other crackdowns on immigration, but Pritzker is among state governors saying they will uphold their laws prohibiting law enforcement collaboration with federal agents on immigration enforcement actions.
Speaking of the potential for raids by federal law enforcement in an exclusive one-on-one conversation with NBC Chicago Political Reporter Mary Ann Ahern, Pritzker once again emphasized his support for deportation of undocumented individuals convicted of violent crimes, but said that he is dedicated to protecting other residents from deportation simply because of their immigration status.
“I want criminals off the streets, and law enforcement officers to do their jobs,” he said. “Undocumented people who are law-abiding and holding down jobs shouldn’t be arrested just because they’re undocumented.”
Tom Homan, who is expected to be named Trump’s border czar, has promised to “knock down” roadblocks put up by state law enforcement, and that he intends to undertake deportation operations within Chicago and Illinois.
While there were concerns of potential immigration enforcement actions in the first days of the Trump presidency, no immediate credible reports of ICE actions have emerged.
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In Illinois, law enforcement officers are not legally able to coordinate to ICE officials on matters of immigration enforcement, something that Pritzker said he will hold officers to account on.
“Our law enforcement are not (unequivocally) coordinating with ICE officials,” he said. “They are coordinating on violent criminals who have been convicted and are undocumented.”
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Pritzker said he expects law enforcement to adhere to laws on the matter, promising to “go after” jurisdictions that coordinate with federal authorities in immigration enforcement actions.
Under Illinois law, authorities are not permitted to ask individuals about immigration status, or to disclose that status to federal authorities. In the city of Chicago, services cannot be denied to individuals based on immigration status.
Chicago police are also not permitted to work with ICE to deport undocumented individuals under the policy.
With those laws on the books, Pritzker said the state has undertaken numerous informational campaigns to inform those without legal status about their rights in the state of Illinois.
“We’ve done a lot to begin with to make sure people know their rights,” he said. “They (often) didn’t know we have a law in the state of Illinois that allows someone who’s undocumented whose children are citizens or documented to put their children in the custody of someone else. We have laws that allow them to do that while they go through an immigration process.”
Other laws prohibit police departments from entering into agreements with ICE to carry out deportation operations, and state agencies are prohibited from entering into contracts to build or operate private detention centers for immigration enforcement actions.
The Illinois governor was also critical of a Trump executive order that would seek to end “birthright citizenship” in the United States, reiterating comments he had previously made that such an order would be “unconstitutional.”
Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined officials from other states in challenging Trump’s executive order on Tuesday. Raoul argued that approximately 9,100 children in the U.S. have mothers without legal immigration status, and that 5,200 more children were born to two parents who lacked legal status.
The suit also cited the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens” of the country.
In the end, Pritzker said that his goal is to “protect the people” of the state, and that the mission hasn’t changed amid changes in the Oval Office.
“We have a challenge ahead because the new president clearly wants to attack places like Illinois, where he didn’t win the election, and it’s going to be challenging for working families across our state and across the country,” he said. “My job is to stand up for the law of Illinois, to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make life more affordable, to protect people from having their rights taken away.”
