Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump to pause Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago for the Halloween weekend, saying the state’s families deserve “a break.”
Pritzker held a news conference Thursday morning in Springfield to criticize federal agents’ actions and escalations against civilians during the enhanced immigration enforcement in Chicago and Illinois. He said that while Mr. Trump and Noem have repeatedly said they are going after “the worst of the worst,” federal agents instead appear to be executing indiscriminate sweeps in Chicago neighborhoods, releasing tear gas and detaining nannies, construction workers, landscapers and U.S. citizens.
He spoke in detail about the incident in Old Irving Park last weekend as children were on their way to the neighborhood’s popular Halloween parade. Federal agents deployed tear gas just before 10 a.m. in the 3700 block of Kildare Avenue as families prepared to attend the parade and then a nearby Halloween celebration.
Residents said agents started by focusing on a landscape worker, who they detained. As the community flocked to the area, chanting, blowing whistles and filming, the agents released tear gas on the residential streets.
“They had no criminal target in their sights,” Pritzker said Thursday. “It was just the next neighborhood on their list to terrorize.”
Pritzker said three people were detained in Old Irving Park, two of whom were U.S. citizens.
In the wake of these incidents and more, Pritzker said he has sent a letter to Noem and other DHS leadership to pause immigration enforcement activities in Operation Midway Blitz for the duration of the Halloween weekend.
“I’m asking for basic human decency,” Pritzker said. “I think their response will be revealing. They’ve disrupted everything for more than two months already; give the children and the families of Illinois a break.
“To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, show us this is about something other than you just causing mayhem on our streets and visiting cruelty on our people,” Pritzker continued. “And after Halloween, if you want to actually go after the worst of the worst, work with our local law enforcement to help us go after violent criminals. Instead, you are targeting innocent children and families, Black and brown people, U.S. citizens, hardworking parents. In essence, you are targeting all of us.
“It is un-American,” he concluded. “We cannot stand for it. I will not stand for it.”
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