() Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is visiting Illinois amid a fight between the Trump administration and the state’s governor over immigration operations.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has used the secretary’s visit as a way to slam the Trump administration, saying the administration has never reached out to coordinate on immigration laws and that the state’s bipartisan laws put no residents at risk.
Pritzker also slammed Noem for “cosplaying as law enforcement” and urging pet owners to keep animals under watchful protection, alluding to a story in Noem’s memoir in which she shoots and kills her family’s dog.
This is all the latest in an ongoing back-and-forth between Pritzker and the Trump administration, as the Democratic governor does appear to be setting the stage for a potential presidential run come 2028.
That conflict may come to a head when the governor testifies before Congress next month.
In Illinois, Noem is highlighting what she says are catastrophic impacts of sanctuary jurisdictions and policies and the impacts that it has on its citizens, saying that these sanctuary policies shield people who are living in the country illegally.
A lot of the time, what happens in the sanctuary jurisdictions is that an individual might get arrested for something, and then, they are supposed to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities are supposed to let ICE know when that individual is being released, but a lot of times they don’t, and the person ends up back on the street.
Across the nation, we’ve been reporting on stories about people who have been released in the sanctuary jurisdictions.
Noem referenced crime victims as she criticized Pritzker.
“Governors like JB Pritzker don’t care if gang-bangers, if murderers, rapists and pedophiles roam free in his state,” Noem said. “If they are here illegally, he’s going to protect them. People who support sanctuary policies talk about love and compassion, but where’s the compassion for the families that stand behind me.”
She said sanctuary jurisdictions need to face consequences.
Just this month, ICE arrested Martin Chavez-Lomeli Jr., a Mexican national convicted of killing his father and sentenced to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
In 2023, ICE placed a detainer on Chavez-Loemli. Illinois did not honor that detainer and released him on parole after serving less than six years of his 20-year sentence.
Other cases include Rachel Morin, a mother of five from Maryland who was murdered by a man who was in the country illegally. Her mother has directly blamed policies that allowed the killer into the community.
In Aurora, Colorado, Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua allegedly took over an entire apartment complex. A viral video showed armed men walking around openly with rifles and pistols, and 16 Venezuelan nationals with ties to the gang were actually arrested after an armed home invasion where the victims were beaten, pistol-whipped and stabbed.
Sheriff Brian Kozak told that Colorado sanctuary policies are to blame for a TdA member who ended up on his streets and was jailed for several months.
The Trump administration has threatened to freeze or take back any of the federal funding for the sanctuary jurisdictions that don’t work with law enforcement. That’s part of the administration’s larger push for local, state and federal governments to work together to carry out these deportation efforts.
