Illinois’ Governor J.B. Pritzker, net worth $3.7 billion, should be smarter about who he picks his fights with. Money can’t buy happiness but $352 million, the out-of-pocket sum Pritzker spent to sew up his two-terms as governor, goes a long way. In the upcoming battle to deport Illinois’ illegal immigrants, put your money on Tom Homan, a law enforcement advocate and a no nonsense, blue-collar guy. Before Homan joined the Immigration and Nationalization Service in 1984 as a border patrol agent, investigator, and supervisor, he was a West Carthage, New York police officer. Then, in 2013, President Obama appointed Homan as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations.
Homan, in an interview with the New York Post, made his new office’s strategy clear. While the military may be involved, an eventuality that has sent the media, immigration advocacy groups and the ACLU into a tailspin, Homan laid out his deportation blueprint. Military assets would play an administrative role, mainly arranging travel back to the deportees’ countries of origin, which would put more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the street where they could pursue criminal aliens. Thousands of ICE officers and border patrol agents have been unproductively assigned to processing and releasing the millions of illegal immigrants who recently crossed the border. ICE insiders said that an estimated 60-70% of their officers are stuck behind desks and some have never made arrests in the interior. Other sources said rank-and-file personnel are eager to be out “catching criminals [like Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang member Jose Ibarra who murdered Georgia nursing student Laken Riley] that Biden let roam freely for the last four years without any consequences.” One agent said he “can’t wait” to be out on the streets making arrests.
Enter Pritzker. At a Joliet news conference, Pritzker said, “We of course are deeply concerned about the President of the United States calling out the military inside the U.S. where people are peaceful even if there may be people that are undocumented. The idea of calling out the army into the domestic confines of the U.S. … seems uncalled for and may in fact be unconstitutional and illegal.” Pritzker, a Northwestern University School of Law graduate, should brush up on immigration law. Pritzker, not Homan, is potentially the illegally acting party. Bringing in and Harboring Certain Aliens as defined in 8 U.S. Code § 1324 and Aiding or Assisting Certain Aliens to Enter per 8 U.S. Code § 1327 are federal felonies punishable by fines and prison sentences. Another roadblock standing in Pritzker’s way is the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause which declares federal law to be the supreme law of the land, binding state courts and superseding conflicting state laws.
Homan’s take on Pritzker’s bold but misguided position and his reply to the governor’s immediate post-election remark that if, “You come for my people, you come through me,” the border czar replied, “Game on. We’ve got no problem going through him [Pritzker]. I’ve got 20,000 men and women in ICE who are going to do their job with no apology. And if any governor wants to stand in the way, go ahead and do it. We’ll see what happens. We’re not gonna be intimidated.”
Pritzker needs to take a deep breath before he announces that he’s not going to cooperate. Trump’s landslide election proved that voters want illegal aliens deported, a reality that the nakedly White House-ambitious Pritzker should remember before he pontificates again. Since August 2022, Illinois has received 50,000 illegal aliens, costing taxpayers $1 billion to fund their food, shelter, health care, education and legal services. Chicago’s Hispanic and black communities are rebelling over what they allege is Mayor Brandon Johnson’s favoritism toward illegal aliens on whom he has spent over $400 million in the past two years. A congressional report found that Jihadists are actively operating within Illinois. TdA, a deadly Venezuelan gang, has set up shop in Illinois as well as in fifteen other states. Homan contends that his deportations will be done with citizens’ safety and security utmost of his mind. Governors like Pritzker not in synch with prioritizing community should, Homan concluded, resign. Maura Healey (D-MA), and Phil Murphy (D-NJ) have also pledged to do everything in their power to stop Trump from deporting illegal immigrants.
If disregarding Homan is the path that Mr. Macho Man choses to walk down, he’ll lose. While losing, Pritzker will prove that he puts illegal aliens’ interests above those of U.S. citizens, the same political strategy that ended in Harris’ humiliating November defeat. Pritzker’s ambition to become the 2028 Democrat Party’s presidential candidate would be helped if he cooperated with instead of confronted Homan.
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