Governor Pritzker Demands Press Conference and Public Accountability from Secretary Noem
Illinois governor calls for accountability amid reports of unlawful detentions by federal agents.
SPRINGFIELD - Upon learning through media sources that Secretary Kristi Noem is visiting Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker released the following statement.
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“Federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem have spent weeks snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens. They fail to focus on violent criminals and instead create panic in our communities.
“Secretary Noem should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability. Last time when the secretary was here, she snuck in during the early morning to film social media videos and fled before sunrise. It's been nearly 45 days since Secretary Noem has held an official press conference, so it’s time she faces the public and takes questions from the press to be held accountable for the Trump Administration’s gross misconduct.
“Illinois is not a photo opportunity or warzone, it’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect, and answers.”
Last week, Governor Pritzker asked 10 questions of from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the deployment of federal law enforcement agents in Illinois after she recorded b-roll and fled the state without providing any answers. This follows a longer list of questions he and the Illinois congressional delegation have been pressing for answers on.
FACT SHEET:
Trump Administration’s Attacks on the Rights of Illinoisians
The Trump Administration’s federal agents in Illinois are not making our state safer or only targeting violent criminals. It is the pretext for the continued unconstitutional and unlawful assault against our neighborhoods and the ongoing attempt to create chaos, so Donald Trump has an excuse to send armed military troops into our communities.
The Trump Administration gloats about taking out “the worst of the worst” in heavily edited and contrived social media videos. However, they have admitted on the record that they are detaining people based on “how they look.”
If the Trump Administration was actually focused on public safety and getting the worst of the worst, why are they:
- Detaining U.S. citizens, including children.
- Making alleged unlawful arrests.
- Arresting individuals who are “no danger to the community”.
- Traumatizing children by dragging them out of their beds in the middle of the night, apparently unclothed, and throwing them into U-Haul vans.
- Allegedly laughing at children who were zip-tied together.
- Shooting local news reporters with chemical agents.
- Posting social media videos mocking and glorifying the detention of individuals—including U.S. citizens—who are later released.
- Holding families with young children in detainment rooms at O’Hare Airport.
- Ransacking the homes of U.S. citizens.
- Withholding the facts when an ICE agent claimed to be “seriously injured” after the agent shot and killed a man. The ICE agent himself actually said his injuries were “nothing major".
- Exploiting aggressive use of force tactics when not warranted.
- Surrounding workers on the roof of a house while doing their jobs.
- Bringing film crews and celebrities to enforcement operations and allowing them to question suspects.
- Refusing to have agents wear body cameras.
- Threatening to go to “war” against the community they are supposed to protect.
- Unsuccessfully chasing a Chicagoan on their bike.
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