Chicago spared immigration raids Tuesday, but Pritzker warns feds may target '2,000 people'
Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday said he believes President Donald Trump’s administration is targeting “as many as 2,000 people” in Chicago in its mass deportation plan.
Those numbers come from local law enforcement, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions. But the Chicago Police Department declined to comment on that total, as did other police sources. It’s unclear whether the number encompasses the people Trump “border czar” Tom Homan is targeting: criminals who lack legal status and immigrants with deportation orders.
After weeks of preparation by Chicago's immigrant communities, and a weekend full of fear amid multiple reports that the city would serve as the first major raid, there were no reports of immigration enforcement on Tuesday.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration’s immigration raids would begin in Chicago Tuesday morning, citing sources familiar with the planning. But by Saturday, Homan told the Washington Post that federal authorities were reconsidering whether to launch immigration raids in Chicago after details began to leak.
At an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said the Trump administration has not communicated with his administration about their plan.
“We have heard that they’re targeting as many as 2,000 people initially in the city of Chicago alone,” Pritzker said. “I don’t know whether they’ll effectuate that or how, and I want to be clear about what my position is and what the law is. If there are violent criminals who have been convicted of violent crimes, who are undocumented, they are supposed to be deported. That is the law of the United States and has been for quite a long time. I don’t want them in my state. I don’t want them in the country.”
Pritzker said a visit to Pilsen and Little Village’s empty storefronts on Monday served as proof that Trump’s plan is once again stoking fear in Chicago’s immigrant neighborhoods.
“I was in businesses yesterday that were relatively empty because people are afraid to show up,” Pritzker said. “Because even documented immigrants, even citizens who are from another country but now are citizens of the United States have relatives who are undocumented. They’re afraid. That is what this president is doing, and it’s wrong.”
Speaking with CNN’s Dana Bash on Tuesday, Homan reiterated that he’s targeting people in the country lacking legal status who have a criminal conviction. He said he wants access to criminals in jails in sanctuary cities, to arrest them "in the safety and security of a county jail.”
But Homan said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers also plan to go into communities to find these criminals — and others may be arrested along with them.
“We will find him, but when we find him, he may be with others. Others that don't have a criminal conviction are in the country illegally. They will be arrested too,” Homan said. “...So, there's going to — there's going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go in the community and find — and find the guy we're looking for.”
Homan also downplayed the attention on Chicago, despite his own claims in December at a GOP holiday party that the city would serve as ground zero for his plan.
Contributing: Tom Schuba