WATCH: Pritzker continues encouraging ICE protests after Guard blocked

By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – With the National Guard’s deployment in Illinois for public safety blocked by a federal judge, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is awaiting what happens next.

Pritzker said he’s pleased with Thursday’s outcome, but acknowledged it’s temporary.

“I honestly was hoping that we would see a result like this,” Pritzker said after an unrelated event Friday. “As you know, it’s a temporary restraining order, so there will be a full blown trial about what the outcome might be.”

U.S. Northern Command said in an update to its Federal Protection Mission website that the Guard units in Chicago are not conducting any operational activities “at this time.”

“Our soldiers are conducting planning and training but not engaging in any Federal Protection Mission operational activities,” the posting updated Friday said. “We have no additional information to provide.”

The judge’s order only lasts two weeks from Thursday.

The Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

President Donald Trump said 4,000 people have been murdered in Chicago “over a short period of time.”

Hundreds of people are murdered in Chicago every year, leading the nation in total number of annual homicides.

“There’s no place like that,” Trump said Friday evening.

Pritzker said he’ll wait on the ultimate outcome in the courts.

“We’ve always said that we have to rely on the judiciary to be the check and balance on what the president and the Congress are trying to do, or sometimes failing to do,” Pritzker said.

Trump has said he wants the National Guard in Chicago to help with public safety. Officials with the military said the mission is to protect federal officials and property while they conduct official operations.

Pritzker said Trump’s action in deploying the Guard was overreach.

“I mean, it’s over-the-top and very disturbing to those of us who believe in the Constitution and the law,” Pritzker said.

Supporters of using the Guard to keep federal officials safe amid increased clashes and attacks on police say Pritzker isn’t following the law by not cooperating with immigration enforcement.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Tracy said Chicagoans have been “enduring undeniable and unacceptable levels of violent crime for too long.”

“This demands urgent action, not endless litigation,” Tracy said in a statement. “Coordinating federal assistance to tackle these overwhelming challenges should happen at the negotiating table, where leaders collaborate on practical solutions, not in a courtroom or on social media where partisan games overshadow real results.”

Pritzker encouraged peaceful protests to continue against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though he worried about people with bad intentions embedding in peaceful protests

“Look, I only have concern if peaceful protesters are somehow disrupted by people who are not being peaceful, or by ICE,” Pritzker said.

Images shared on social media Friday showed Illinois State Police and other local law enforcement scuffling with protesters at the ICE facility in Broadview.

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