(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Illinois Governor JB Pritzker says he’s still mad about Operation Midway Blitz — the federal immigration enforcement effort that impacted the Chicago area, and some downstate cities, one year ago.
Pritzker held an event at a Chicago-area church Tuesday in honor of one of the victims who died.
“Every day, mostly U.S. citizens or legal residents who had no criminal records were stopped and detained, were brutalized by the U.S. government,” said Pritzker, in Chicago’s “Little Village” neighborhood, “Most often, not because of something that they did, but because of the color of their skin.”
Pritzker agreed with the description by a Chicago alderman on the so-called raids, calling them terror that claimed a number of lives. He says almost none of those caught up were committing unlawful acts, even though the work was supposed to root out illegal citizens.
“Illinois has always worked with the federal government going after the real bad guys. We do, with the (Drug Enforcement Agency), with FBI, with (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms),” said Pritzker. “We always work to make our streets and our state safer. But, that’s not what Donald Trump and Steven Miller and Greg Bovino, and Kristi Noem, and Tom Homan were doing. We cannot let history forget what happens when a federal government uses law enforcement to terrorize innocent people.”
Pritzker says that’s why an accountability commission was formed.
Pritzker says since then, residents have come together to help those impacted, from legal assistance, to things as simple as blowing a whistle to let others know what was coming.
