By KEVIN BESSLER
Illinois Radio Network
CHICAGO, Ill. (IRN) – The Trump Administration is following through on promises to ramp up immigration enforcement efforts and Illinois is in the bullseye.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made over a thousand arrests nationwide over the weekend, with many taking place in Cook County.
Border Czar Tom Homan, who was in Chicago this weekend, said for now they are focusing on criminals with arrest warrants and deportation orders.
“Sanctuary cities lock us out of the jails,” Homan said on ABC’s ‘This Week’. “So instead of ICE being able to arrest the bad guy, that the criminal alien in the safety and security of a jail, where the officers are safe, the alien is safe, the public safe, sanctuary cities release him back in the community,” Homan said.
The actions come after Homan warned sanctuary cities across the U.S., including Chicago, that their policies will not prevent deportations, and will instead endanger communities, federal agents and illegal aliens.
Several immigrant advocacy groups in Chicago are suing the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement.
The Illinois Latino Agenda issued a statement in response to incorrect reports that ICE agents attempted to enter a school.
“Although it was later confirmed not to be ICE, it’s an example of confusion and misinformation that spreads when communities are being terrorized. The most helpless and vulnerable among us, our children, should not live in fear and their parents should not be afraid to send them to school,” the statement read.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Sunday vowed to “stand in the way’’ of some Trump deportation policies, including those targeting “law-abiding’’ illegal migrants. He said that illegal immigrants who break the law should be arrested.
“What they’re also doing though, and it’s quite disturbing, is they are going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs and have families here,” Pritzker told CNN.
Pritzker added that the state of Illinois has “sanctuary” rules on the books, which limit local authorities’ cooperation with the feds.
The Justice Department has released a memo threatening to go after city and state officials who attempt to scuttle immigration enforcement efforts.
