‘A crisis for the nation’: ICE accountability commission continues to
seek solutions
[January 31, 2026]
By Maggie Dougherty
CHICAGO — A state commission dedicated to documenting misconduct by
federal immigration agents and making policy recommendations issued its
initial report Friday, while also adopting a new direction to look at
high-ranking White House officials.
The Illinois Accountability Commission, created through executive order
by Gov. JB Pritzker in October, has spent recent months reviewing
actions of federal agents stationed in the Chicagoland area during
President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration
enforcement campaign, including public testimony provided at its first
open hearing in mid-December.
Ahead of the commission’s second public hearing Friday, Pritzker asked
the commission to expand its review to include major Trump officials,
including the now-ousted Customs and Border Patrol “commander at large”
Gregory Bovino, White House “border czar” Tom Homan, Secretary of
Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief
of staff for policy.
“For too long, Gregory Bovino and his rogue federal agents have
terrorized communities in Illinois and across the country, violated our
people’s constitutional rights, and unleashed violence at every turn,”
Pritzker said. “Bovino packing his bags cannot detract from our mission
(of) accountability.”
In addition to eight named officials, Pritzker’s request applied to
additional “deputies, subordinates and officials across the Trump
hierarchy who may have played a role in the federal deployments.”
The commission agreed to take up that mandate, with Commission Chair and
former U.S. District Court Judge Rubén Castillo signaling that the
commission may recommend disciplinary action or prosecution related to
the shootings of Silverio Villegas González, a father of two killed by
ICE agents in Franklin Park in September and of teaching assistant
Marimar Martinez, shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in October.
“Just imagine if agents who shot Mr. Villegas González back on Sept. 12
had been publicly disciplined. Imagine a world where that had happened,
maybe, just maybe, the Minnesota shootings would not have occurred and
two people would be alive who are now dead,” Castillo said, referencing
the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The commission’s report also states that it “is seeking to make
referrals for criminal or civil prosecution for misconduct by federal
immigration agents.”
Erosion of legitimacy
The three-hour hearing in downtown Chicago featured testimony from
professors, legal scholars, historians, journalists and law enforcement
professionals.
University of Chicago Professor of Political Science Robert Pape focused
on the public’s perception of Operation Midway Blitz and the ongoing
immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota.
The Trump administration’s denial of visible facts, like the claim that
Alex Pretti was holding a gun in his hand and approached agents with the
intent to “massacre them,” undermines the government’s legitimacy, Pape
said.
“Democracies don’t fail when laws are enforced,” Pape said. “They fail
when enforcement loses legitimacy and people stop believing restraint
will protect them. That is why Minneapolis is a crisis for the nation.”
But that crisis, he said, did not start in Minnesota. Pape pointed to
DHS’s characterization of Martinez, the Chicago woman shot in October,
as a “domestic terrorist.” The administration ultimately dropped its
charges against Martinez after it was revealed that the agent who shot
her had bragged over text about the shooting.
Martinez’ lawyer has recently sought to have video footage from her case
released, as he said it contradicts the administration’s claim that she
had prevented the agents from passing by. The evidence from her case
remains under a protective order that prevents its release, which her
legal team says has allowed DHS to control the narrative without
evidence.
If people do not trust the government to tell them the truth and to use
its force to protect them, they will resist, Pape argued. Immigration
enforcement officers’ reliance on face masks and coverings also
deteriorates that legitimacy, he said.
“The mask, of course, is building a perception that the state doesn’t
want to be truthful about its use of force,” Pape said.
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University of Chicago Political Science Professor Robert Pape
presents data on immigration enforcement activity in Chicago during
a Jan. 30, 2026, hearing of Illinois Accountability Commission.
(Capitol News Illinois photo by Maggie Dougherty)
That contributed to a perception by over half of Chicago residents that
Operation Midway Blitz was about exerting political control, rather than
a legitimate immigration enforcement campaign, according to a study
conducted by the University of Chicago.
Historical, new abuses
Garrett Graff, an author, journalist and historian who has documented
the evolution of ICE and CBP for over two decades, outlined a long
history of abuses and misconduct inside the organizations.
Nearly 5,000 Border Patrol agents have been arrested since 2005, some of
them multiple times a year, said Graff, a former editor at Politico.
“The population of CBP agents and officers who have been arrested would
make it roughly the nation’s fourth largest police department, equal in
size to the entire Philadelphia police,” Graff told the commission. “It
appears that the crime rate of CBP agents and officers was higher per
capita (for much of the 2010s) than the crime rate of undocumented
immigrants in the United States.”
That has gotten worse and will continue, Graff said, with the ballooning
of funding for ICE under the so-called One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act
passed by Congress last year. The bill gave ICE $75 billion to spend
over four years, in addition to its annual budget of $10 billion.
For years, the ICE budget was expected to support around 400,000
deportations annually, or 3,000 a day. But in April 2025, the
administration set a new goal: to deport one million people per year.
That new quota has required the administration to hire a lot of people
quickly.
The once required five-month training for agents has been shortened to
six-weeks, according to Graff. ICE recruits have been hired without
background checks or meeting the department’s own standards, according
to NBC News.
“In any other foreign country, if a U.S. reporter was writing about
these raids and the occupation of Chicago or Minneapolis, we wouldn’t
hesitate to call ICE or CBP a paramilitary force loyal to the regime or
a masked right-wing militia,” Graff said. “As an even larger cohort of
even less-qualified and less-trained ICE and CBP officers begins to hit
the streets, this is almost all certainly going to get worse.”
Recommendations
The commission is tasked with issuing recommendations to the governor
and the public.
Those who spoke Friday offered a number of recommendations for
accountability, including that immigration agents are not masked and
have clearly displayed identification, and that the geographic
jurisdiction for CBP be limited to areas closer to the border, and that
disciplinary action be referred local law enforcement, which would be
exempt from presidential pardon.
The commission will consider these and other recommendations as it works
toward issuing a final report on April 30.
Earlier this month, the commission opened a contact form for people who
witnessed or experienced misconduct by federal immigration enforcement
agents to submit information for review. Commissioners encouraged the
public to reach out with recommendations or other information for its
consideration.
For his part, Graff called on Congressional leaders to act to reverse
the major influx of spending that is set to begin for ICE over the next
four years.
“This doesn’t change unless we demand change,” Graff said. “The way that
the funding for ICE has been allocated, it can spend that money straight
through to 2029. Congress is going to have to act to turn that funding
and hiring spigot off. Otherwise, this continues on autopilot for the
next four years. The damage that we are doing to our country will be
long lasting.”
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