(The Center Square) – While Democratic members of Illinois’ congressional delegation call out President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, an Illinois Republican candidate for the U.S. House is pointing to the immigration policies of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
At a press conference in Chicago Friday, Illinois Democrats discussed the findings of a shadow hearing on the impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
Illinois U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago, thanked members of Congress from other states who attended the unofficial hearing and press conference.
“Colleagues of mine from all over the country heard from our community on the ground what we’re experiencing, what we’re living: the violent attacks by this invasion created by Donald Trump and Kristi Noem,” Ramirez said.
Several lawmakers from Illinois, including U.S. Reps. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Chicago, and Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, left the press conference before reporters were allowed to ask questions.
When asked if anyone in the state’s congressional delegation tried to set up a meeting with the president to open a dialogue about immigration, Illinois U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, answered.
“He is not going to meet with us. We can’t even get him to meet with us. He and the Republicans are gone. He’s flying out of the country. We can’t even get him to meet with us about the shutdown. He certainly is not meeting with us about this,” Kelly said.
Trump was scheduled to begin a trip to Asia on Friday.
Republican Christian Maxwell is running for Congress in Illinois’ 1st U.S. House District, which is currently represented by Jackson.
Maxwell said it’s a congressperson’s job to foster dialogue.
“If they are forfeiting and foregoing that primary task of making sure that they turn over every rock by going after those conversations and opening up those dialogues that will allow for solutions to be found, they have failed us in this state and they have failed people in the U.S. in general. If they haven’t even tried to pursue a meeting, you cannot make a single claim about what Trump will not do, because you never asked,” Maxwell told The Center Square.
Maxwell said Democrats should have taken interest in illegal immigration when Pritzker signed the Way Forward Act in 2021.
“So all of the pomp and circumstance that we see Pritzker currently waging towards Trump, really making this entire illegal alien conversation about an anti-Trump stance or claiming that Trump is just specifically going after these people, it’s just really a fallacy, because Pritzker began protecting the illegal aliens in our state years ago,” Maxwell said.
The Way Forward Act expanded on the TRUST Act to prohibit law enforcement from asking about immigration status. The Way Forward Act also discontinued detention agreements between county jails and federal immigration agencies.
Maxwell noted that the legislation made it difficult for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to utilize Illinois prisons to house illegal aliens that agents had detained.
Maxwell said the federal government then had to expend additional taxpayer resources to move individuals out of state.
Greg Bishop contributed to this report.
