(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he will protect non-violent, non-citizen migrants in the state.
Earlier this week, President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was in Chicago. Monday evening, he said if elected officials don’t get out of the way, they could be prosecuted. Wednesday, Pritzker downplayed those comments.
“I’m open to a dialogue with him,” Pritzker said of Homan. “I will say that he does not have the authority to do the things that he has talked about. Being a border czar is not an official position.”
Pritzker said violent criminal non-citizens should be deported and never allowed, but he will stand up for asylum seekers and other undocumented residents of the state.
“Let me be clear up front, violent criminals who are undocumented and convicted of violent crime should be deported,” Pritzker said. “I do not want them in my state and I do not think they should be in the United States.”
Pritzker said he will stand up for those here undocumented who are not violent. Asked if he would work with immigration officials in a Trump administration, Pritzker said yes.
“And I will work with, yeah sure, law enforcement up and down just as I do every day, federal state and local law enforcement on other matters,” Pritzker said.
Illinois law prohibits state and local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration officials, if the only thing they have is a detention order.
Earlier this week in front of a U.S. Senate committee, Art Arthur with the Center for Immigration Studies said local police must work with immigration officials.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions do nothing but punish those individuals that live in those communities that those criminals are sent back to,” Arthur said.
Trump takes office Jan. 20.