Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, spoke out against Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois on Friday. He criticized the governor for trying to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from arresting and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.
ICE arrested and deported hundreds of illegal immigrants who were charged with crimes, including terrorism. This followed President Donald Trump’s signing of new orders that strengthened enforcement, including canceling orders from President Joe Biden that reversed Trump’s policies from his first term in 2021. Lopez said that Pritzker is out of touch with what Chicago people need.
Lopez said on “America Reports” with Sandra Smith that there is a big gap between what he hears from the governor and mayor and what people in his neighborhoods, which have many immigrants, experience. “We know there is a difference.” There is a distinction between the people the governor mentioned and those who decide to commit dangerous crimes. They put illegal people at risk. They put people at risk. They put our own people at risk, and I know from meeting Tom Homan that he and the Trump government are focused on this type of person. “Those who decide to commit crimes.”
“It’s wrong for people to treat all undocumented individuals the same because some of them do not care about this country or their communities and are committing serious crimes in our city,” Lopez said. “They need to be handled quickly and in a detailed way, and the Trump Administration is doing this in its first week in office.”
Smith showed a clip of Pritzker criticizing the ICE actions.
“How can you say we’re overreacting?” They are the ones threatening law-abiding people who are often the backbone of their towns and pay taxes in this country. They are the ones making threats to people. “We’re just supporting the people who live in our state and city,” Pritzker said.
City and state officials have spent a lot of money—hundreds of millions of dollars—to provide housing, clothing, and food for over 35,000 migrants brought to Chicago, according to Fox News in February.
In 2023, protests happened in Chicago against placing migrants in a closed high school and two other places on the city’s south side. Black residents took formal steps to stop this, as reported by ABC7Chicago.com.
Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson said in November that he wouldn’t help the Trump administration with deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes.
Many illegal immigrants have arrived in places like Chicago and New York City, and some have been sent there by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Abbott started sending migrants to “sanctuary” towns in 2022, together with then-Republican Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona.
“We’ve seen many of my colleagues stand up and join my efforts to try to put some common sense back into our sanctuary city laws,” Lopez said. “We shouldn’t protect sexual predators.” We shouldn’t help people who want to use guns to hurt others and who have already harmed people. A sensible way to handle this is to do both. Going after the 2% is dangerous while defending the 98% that are not. Unfortunately, some people in my party, like my mayor, aren’t following along with us, but I believe that in the end, we’ll be proven correct.
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