WATCH: Pritzker criticizes Trump as feds make arrests in immigration enforcement blitz

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker is questioning President Donald Trump’s health as federal authorities arrive in Illinois to ramp up immigration and public safety enforcement efforts.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in Chicago Tuesday that violent offenders were taken off the streets that same morning, with arrests for assault, DUI and felony stalking.

“President Trump has been clear: if politicians will not put the safety of their citizens first, this administration will. I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down,” Noem said in a statement.

U.S. Border Patrol Commander Op At Large Gregory Bovino announced his arrival in Chicago Tuesday morning with a video posted on X.

“Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived! Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles—to make the city safer by targeting and arresting criminal illegal aliens,” Bovino said in the post.

DHS launched Operation Midway Blitz in Illinois on Monday, Sept. 8, in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed last January in a crash involving noncitizen migrant and Guatemalan national Julio Cucul-Bol. Along with the announcement, DHS posted names and photos of 11 noncitizen migrants with criminal charges or convictions who were released in Illinois and remained at large.

Pritzker took questions from reporters Tuesday after an event in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. When asked about Trump seemingly changing his mind in recent days about sending in the National Guard, the governor questioned the president’s health.

“He’s attacking verbally. Sometimes he attacks sending his agents in. Sometimes he forgets. I think he might be suffering from some dementia. You know, the next day he’ll wake up on the other side of the bed and stop talking about Chicago,” Pritzker said.

The governor said DHS has not kept him informed.

“What we know is that Gregory Bovino, who seems to be in charge of the operations here, has a history of acting in ways that are quite violent against people, many of whom are not criminals. They are grabbing people who have brown skin or who speak with an accent or who speak another language,” Pritzker said.

P Rae Easley, a Republican U.S. House candidate in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, thanked Trump for taking the safety of Chicago citizens seriously.

“We are in the middle of an invasion caused by the lax border policies of the previous administration, and my president is here to give us some straightening. The citizens of Chicago do not deserve to be terrorized by citizens of the Third World, so we are elated that Kristi Noem is here to not only remove the criminal actors but to also get rid of the terrorists who are here in the city of Chicago” Easley told The Center Square. “When I say ‘terrorists’ that means both Al-Qaeda, who has identified the city of Chicago as a target, and the drug cartels.”

Easley said Pritzker wants to vilify federal help just because it’s coming from Trump.

“I think that our governor is taking his personal beef with the president too far. He, as the executive leader of the state, should be first in line asking for help to get rid of the criminality in the state,” Easley said.

Easley said Illinois State Police, the Cook County Sheriff and Chicago Police need help, because they have not been successful at removing criminal threats.