Pritzker: Deport violent non-citizens, protect others here undocumented

[October 30, 2024]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker agrees with former President Donald Trump that violent non-citizen migrants should be arrested and deported, but stops there.

Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, more than 14 million individuals have crossed into the country illegally. That does not include those who evaded detection. A previously released report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement highlighted there are 660,000 criminal foreign nationals identified to be deported.

Of that, nearly 15,000 have been convicted or charged with murder, more than 20,000 charged with sexual assault, 105,000 with assault, 3,300 with kidnapping and nearly 4,000 with crimes including sex trafficking.

An additional 60,268 are on the list for burglary/larceny/robbery; 126,343 for traffic offenses including driving under the influence; and 16,820 for weapons offenses.

Trump has promised to begin mass deportation operations on Day 1 if he’s elected. At Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York, he explained he’d invoke The Alien Enemies Act from 1798.

“To target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil, and there are lots of them,” Trump told the packed arena. “We don’t have the same country anymore. You know that.”

Election day Nov. 5 will be known as “liberation day,” he said.

 Members of the Texas National Guard erecting razor wire barriers on state land in Eagle Pass, Texas. - Gov. Greg Abbott's X feed

“The United States is now an occupied country but it will soon be an occupied country no longer,” Trump said. “Not gonna be happening. Not gonna be happening.”

Monday in Springfield, Pritzker agreed that violent non-citizen migrant criminals need to be apprehended.

“They should be imprisoned and, or if they’re illegal, undocumented in this country and they are committing violent crimes they should be deported and turned over to authorities in their countries,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker stopped there and warned that Trump wants to go further to deport all undocumented non-citizens migrants.

“And I think it’ll be that times 10,” Pritzker said. “So, are there things that we can do to prevent it? Sure. We’ve already passed laws that would help prevent that.”

Illinois law prohibits local and state law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, if a detention order is the only issue against a non-citizen migrant.

The cost to Illinois taxpayers for non-citizens has already exceeded $1 billion and is expected to grow to cover housing, food, school, legal services and even subsidized health care.

Bethany Blankley contributed to this report.