Trump says he’s fighting crime. Illinois Gov. Pritzker sees a power grab before 2026 : NPR
For weeks, President Trump threatened to send national guard troops to Chicago. Illinois governor JB Pritzker said that Trump’s repeated threats to send troops are a capture of power while the president says that it is an effort to fight crime.
Pritzker alleges that Trump wants to define a military intervention model before the congress elections in 2026.
Trump seems to lack the legal authority, at this stage, to deploy troops in Chicago without the request of Pritzker. But the Ministry of Internal Security made a different decision on Monday, announcing “the Midway Blitz operation”, an operation to bring people without legal status.
Tuesday, Pritzker met with NPR following a visit to the National Museum of Mexican art, an institution of Chicago linked to the Latin American population of the city, which totaled around 800,000 people in a city of 2.7 million. In an office decorated with Mexican drawings, sculptures, paintings and skulls, Pritzker spoke out against the Trump administration and addressed the political future of his party during an NPR video interview.
The complete conversation on the video can be seen above. You will find below a few key points.
The Governor of Illinois, JB Pritzer, visits the National Museum of Mexican Art of Chicago with the president of the Museum José Ochoa, on the right.
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He says that a decision of the Supreme Court approved racial profiling.
The court, without explanation, canceled a lower justice decision which revealed that the immigration agents are committed to racial profiling in the streets of Los Angeles. One of the judges of the conservative majority of the Court, Brett Kavanaugh, argued that it was reasonable to question the people who worked on construction sites or spoke badly English.
“You think they are wondering? Because that’s not what we see in one of the passenger videos that have been made. People are seized,” said Pritzker. “You should not have to walk with papers as they did at the beginning of Nazi Germany to prove that you belong and that you are not one of them. And it is essentially the kind of country that we are becoming.”
Pritzker said he was particularly worried about people “who are legally here, but it may not be the American citizens … Nothing that they will wear will not be good for the ice”.
He said that many people in the United States without legal status should stay.
Pritzker expressed a fundamental difference with the president and his administration, who said that all those in the United States without legal status should leave the country. The governor said that “people who have been here 10 and 20 and 30 years old, who have raised families here, who occupy jobs and taxes, who follow the law, they have never had problems with the law” should be authorized to stay.
He thinks that Trump’s concentration on Chicago will soon blow.
He told NPR that the 300 ICE agents who had been deployed in the city came from Los Angeles, the place of immigration operations earlier this year. Finally, the governor presumes, they will have to move elsewhere.
He says crime is not the real problem.
The governor says that Trump’s real objective is to “normalize” the use of soldiers in civil areas and create a pretext to use it to influence the 2026 elections, which will determine control of the congress.
The administration highlighted last weekend crime in Chicago, when at least five people were killed in separate incidents.
The crime has greatly decreased in Chicago, but remains a salient problem. Before the interview with the governor, NPR met a priest, Michael Pfleger. He severely criticized the idea of sending troops, but also retained an exhibition near his church for photos of dozens of young people killed by armed violence.
On the left: Father Michael Pfleger by St. Sabina Church shows the host of the morning edition Steve Inskeep and the editor of Reena Advani near her church for the dozens of young people killed by armed violence. Right: a close -up of certain victims.
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He is a billionaire, but says he is different from billionaires from the Trump administration.
“I believe that this is your values and not the amount of money you have,” said Pritzker, who comes from one of the richest families in the country. “I think it is clear that I fought for the working class in this state. I defended the labor rights. I helped adopt an amendment to our Constitution which protects the rights of workers. I made sure that we increase the minimum wage.”
He says the government has often failed workers and needs “reform”.
Asked about the liberals and progressives who argued that the government has become too slow and linked to the rules to build new projects and stimulate development, Pritzker said: “I could not agree with this criticism. Remember, I was in business before being governor.”
He was considered a possible presidential competitor in 2028.
He did not say that he was running, but talked about the idea of a governor as president.
“There are things that governors will learn in their executive functions and the things that I have come into office, having management positions in the private sector which are very useful for managing any type of organization, especially the largest organization that exists in the United States,” said Pritzker.
