Pritzker focuses on violence intervention; VP won’t confirm deployments
[September 04, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Vice President J.D. Vance is not confirming
reports shared by Gov. J.B. Pritzker that federal deployments may arrive
in Illinois this week.
Pritzker spoke in Chicago Wednesday and said he had no official
confirmation about National Guard or Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement deployments.
“What we’re hearing is that they’ll be assembled, ready to go on Friday
and that they’ll begin actions on Saturday, over the weekend,” Pritzker
said.
“We want the governor to be a partner here. We would love it, Democrat
or Republican, if we had governors who were willing to actually be
partners in cutting down crime in our country. Unfortunately, it looks
like that’s not what we have in J.B. Pritzker,” Vance said.
Trump said Tuesday he would send in the National Guard, and he would be
honored to get a call from Pritzker.
The governor reiterated Wednesday that he would not call the President.
“He’s going to end up in court, and that will be a fact that they will
use in court, that the governor called to ask for help,” Pritzker said.
The governor spoke at Metropolitan Peace Academy in Chicago after
meeting with people from community violence intervention programs.
Metropolitan Peace Academy has received both federal and state taxpayer
funding.
“Community Violence Intervention Programs have a clear and demonstrated
track record of reducing crime and making our communities safer, which
is why my administration has invested historic amounts into them,”
Pritzker said in a statement.
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Separately, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and President Donald Trump
BlueRoomStream, WhiteHouse | YouTube
The governor also met with representatives from the Midwest
Immigrant Defenders Alliance, a coalition of seven immigrant legal
service providers that built a referral system for Illinois
residents in immigration detention to access legal representation.
Chicago Flips Red Vice President Danielle Carter-Walters said the
city’s political leaders have failed to protect American citizens in
Chicago and Illinois. She called for Trump to order a forensic audit
of city departments and crime prevention funding.
“Because we know, with all this crime that’s going on, we know the
money is not being spent towards the crime prevention, and we are
also down 2,000 officers,” Carter-Walters said Tuesday.
Illinois has a history of spending taxpayer dollars on similar
programs.
The former Gov. Pat Quinn-era Neighborhood Recovery Initiative doled
out tens of millions of dollars to nonprofit anti-violence groups
throughout the state over several years before the 2014 election. An
investigation found little grant oversight and significant waste.
Greg Bishop and Sarah Roderick-Fitch contributed
to this story. |
