Pritzker Says Trump Admin Is Making Chicago A ‘War Zone,’ As ICE Raids Increase

With immigration raids increasing in scope and violence against Chicagoans, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker fought back against Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s claims that the city is a “war zone” ― saying that it is the Trump administration itself turning Chicago into a war zone by flooding the city with federal agents.

“They’re raiding neighborhoods where, instead of going after the bad guys, they’re just picking up people who are brown and Black and then checking their credentials,” the Democratic governor told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Are you a U.S. citizen? I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry around papers that say I’m a U.S. citizen. So you can imagine, people are getting detained, they’re getting arrested, U.S. citizens.”

Pritzker’s comments come less than a week after hundreds of federal immigration agents violently raided a building of families overnight in the South Shore neighborhood, ransacking apartments and dragging about 130 people outside ― among them elderly people and children who were separated from their families, zip-tied and held for hours, some naked.

The raid drew national backlash against immigration officials, who claimed without evidence that gang members were in the building. Pritzker said that the Department of Children and Family Services are investigating the incident and what happened to the children and elderly involved.

“It is evident that this is not about safety. It’s not about deportation,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Saturday. “This is about the president of the United States of America and his kind that are looking to stoke and foment chaos and fear within our streets of cities across America. But we’re going to remain firm, and we’re going to fight back against this tyranny.”

Federal immigration agents have also responded violently to daily protests across the city and outside the ICE detention center in Broadview, Illinois ― throwing a congressional candidate on the ground, shooting a Chicagoan in at least two separate incidents, arresting an alderperson inquiring about one of the shooting victims, and using tear gas and pepper spray against protesters and civilians.

“At one point, a lone federal agent stood in front of a line of Chicago police officers, and deliberately tossed a can of tear gas into a small crowd of community members who were standing nearby,” the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago said on Saturday.

This weekend, Trump authorized the National Guard to protect immigration agents from what his spokesperson called “violent riots and lawlessness.” The president has also spoken about potentially turning Democrat-led cities like Chicago into training grounds for the military.

“They want mayhem on the ground. They want to create the war zone, so that they can send in even more troops,” Pritzker said. “Now they’re claiming they need 300 of Illinois’ National Guard. Well, we didn’t need them before they showed up. And what they ought to do is allow us to work with FBI, ATF, DEA, who are civilian law enforcement and understand how to target and take out the bad guys.”

On Sunday morning, Trump responded to Pritzker’s comments by saying he believes the governor is “afraid for his life.”

“I believe the politicians are under threat, because there’s no way somebody can say things are wonderful in Chicago,” the president said of the city, which has seen a major reduction in homicides, shootings, shooting victims and overall violent crime.

Johnson called the president a “double-minded man” who is “unstable in every way possible.”

“The idea of describing the American people as enemies from within is clearly not just a sign of authoritarianism,” he said. “He has totally imbibed the full spirit of tyranny.”