For weeks President Trump has threatened to send National Guard troops to Chicago. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says Trump's repeated threats to send troops are a power grab while the President says it's an effort to fight crime.
Pritzker alleges that Trump wants to set a pattern of military intervention before the 2026 Congressional elections.
Trump appears to lack the legal authority, at this point, to deploy troops to Chicago without Pritzker's request. But the Department of Homeland Security made a different move on Monday, announcing "Operation Midway Blitz," an operation to round up people without legal status.
On Tuesday, Pritzker spoke with NPR following a tour of the National Museum of Mexican Art, a Chicago institution connected with the city's substantial Latino population, which totals some 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 his party's political future during a NPR video interview.
The full conversation on video can be seen above. Below are some key points.
He says a Supreme Court ruling endorsed racial profiling.
The Court, without explanation, overturned a lower court ruling that found immigration agents engaged in racial profiling on the streets of Los Angeles. One of the justices in the Court's conservative majority, Brett Kavanaugh, argued that it was reasonable to question people who worked at construction sites or spoke English poorly.
"You think they're questioning them? Because that's not what any of us are seeing in any of the bystander videos that have been made. People are being grabbed," Pritzker said. "You shouldn't have to walk around with papers the way that they did in the early days of Nazi Germany to prove that you belong and that you're not one of them. And that is essentially the kind of country that we're becoming."
Pritzker said he was especially worried about people "who are here legally, but they may not be U.S. citizens… Nothing that they will carry will be good enough for ICE."
He asserts that many people in the U.S. without legal status should stay.
Pritzker expressed a fundamental difference with the president and his administration, who have asserted that everyone in the U.S. without legal status should leave the country. The governor asserted that "people who've been here 10 and 20 and 30 years, who've raised families here, who are holding down jobs and paying taxes, who are following the law, they've never been in trouble with the law" should be allowed to stay.
He thinks Trump's focus on Chicago will blow over soon.
He told NPR that the 300 ICE agents who were deployed to the city had come from Los Angeles, the scene of immigration operations earlier this year. Eventually, the governor presumes, they will have to move elsewhere.
He says crime is not the real issue.
The governor asserts that Trump's real goal is to "normalize" the use of the military in civilian areas, and create a pretext to use it to sway the 2026 election, which will determine control of Congress.
The administration has highlighted last weekend's crime in Chicago, when at least five people were killed in separate incidents.
Crime has fallen sharply in Chicago, but remains a salient issue. Before the interview with the governor, NPR met with a priest, Michael Pfleger. He harshly criticized the idea of sending troops, but also keeps a display near his church for the photos of dozens of young people killed by gun violence.
He's a billionaire, but says he's different from the billionaires of the Trump administration.
"I believe it's about your values and not about how much money you have," said Pritzker, who comes from one of the nation's wealthiest families. "I think it's clear that I've been fighting for the working class in this state. I have stood up for labor rights. I helped to pass an amendment to our Constitution that protects workers rights. I have made sure that we raise the minimum wage."
He says government has often failed working people, and needs "reform."
Asked about liberals and progressives who have argued that the government has become too slow and rule-bound to build new projects and spur development, Pritzker said, "I couldn't agree more with that critique. Remember, I was in business before I was governor."
He's considered a possible presidential contender in 2028.
He has not said he's running, but did speak up for the idea of a governor as president.
"There are things that governors will learn in their executive functions and things that I came into office understanding, having executive positions in the private sector that are very helpful in running any kind of organization, especially the largest organization that exists in the United States," Pritzker said.
The radio version of this story was edited by Reena Advani and produced by Adam Bearne.
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