Illinois Governor condemns Trump deployment of National Guard amid ICE Raids

President Trump has ordered 300 Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago, overriding Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections. The deployment coincides with ICE raids and recent local shootings in the city.

by Hannah Meisel & Andrew Adams
Capitol News Illinois

After weeks of threatening to do so, President Donald Trump is taking command of 300 Illinois National Guard troops and sending them to Chicago over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections, the governor announced Saturday.

“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

A few dozen protestors and reporters gathered outside an immigration enforcement facility in Broadview on Saturday, Oct. 4. The facility has become a focal point of protest since ICE officials expanded their immigration enforcement in Chicagoland.

The promised deployment comes as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, activity has ramped up in Chicago and its suburbs as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has so far resulted in more than 800 arrests according to the Department of Homeland Security.

There have also been two shootings, including one Saturday on the city’s Southwest Side.

Though the Trump administration insists ICE is targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds, reports have mounted of agents arresting those with no history of illegal activity, detaining children along with their parents and even handcuffing U.S. citizens. Immigrant and civil rights groups have alleged ICE is arresting people without warrants in violation of a federal consent decree.

The wave of raids and arrests has spurred large protests in recent weeks, especially outside of an ICE processing center in Broadview, a suburb eight miles west of Chicago. The demonstrations have spurred clashes between immigration agents and activists, leading to the arrests of several protestors last weekend on charges of resisting and assaulting officers. Agents have sprayed chemical agents and fired nonlethal rounds into the crowds outside the facility.

I want to be clear: there is no need for military troops on the ground in the State of Illinois

On Monday, Pritzker announced DHS was seeking 100 Illinois National Guard troops to protect ICE facilities and immigration agents in Illinois, warning the Trump administration would use any confrontation resulting from its Chicago-area immigration crackdown as a “pretext” for a military deployment.

On Saturday, the governor called the administration’s National Guard activation a ”manufactured performance” and not about protecting public safety.

“I want to be clear: there is no need for military troops on the ground in the State of Illinois,“ Pritzker said, pointing to the Illinois State Police’s announcement this week that it had joined forces with Broadview Police and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to form a “Unified Command” to coordinate law enforcement activity outside the ICE facility.

One of ISP’s first acts in Broadview was designating demonstration areas, also known as “free speech zones.” Pritzker on Saturday said the combined efforts of state and local law enforcement protected “people’s ability to peacefully exercise their constitutional rights.”

Protestors and reporters at Broadview ICE facility — Protestors and reporters gathered outside an immigration enforcement facility in Broadview on Saturday, Oct. 4.

The Unified Command reported the arrests of at least five protesters on Friday, and five more on Saturday night, as of 8 p.m. The area was quiet Saturday afternoon with only about a dozen protesters gathered, at times outnumbered by members of the media.

“I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people,” the governor said in his statement.

But shortly before Pritzker’s announcement about the National Guard deployment Saturday, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot a woman in an altercation between immigration agents and protesters on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

According to reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times, the woman was alleged to have been driving one of 10 cars that “rammed” and “boxed in” nearly three dozen immigration agents in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood. Agents fired “defensive shots” when they saw the woman was allegedly “armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” according to the paper. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The woman was one of two people charged by federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois with using their vehicles to "assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago."

Trump and Pritzker have spent weeks trading barbs over the president’s threats to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, with the governor alleging Trump’s apparent backing off from the idea last month was a sign of dementia.

The governor has already vowed legal action against the Trump administration if and when the president activated the National Guard. After the president sent 1,400 National Guard troops to Los Angeles this summer — the first time since the 1960s that the feds deployed the National Guard without a governor’s consent — a federal judge last month ruled the move violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the power of the federal government to use military force for domestic matters. But the ruling only applies to California.

The National Guard’s presence in Los Angeles has dwindled to roughly 250, but there are still a couple thousand troops on assignment in Washington, D.C., where the federal government has more power over law enforcement. Since their August deployment to the nation’s capital, guardsmen have been reportedly picking up garbage, as they are only authorized to assist with arrests if asked by local law enforcement.

Trump has also threatened to federalize the National Guard in Portland, Oregon, though troops had not yet been sent as of Saturday evening. Tennessee’s Republican governor has welcomed the president’s recent suggestion that he’d deploy guardsmen to Memphis, but that has also yet to happen.

Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Washington, D.C. and Shelby County, Tennessee, where Memphis is situated, have all adopted so-called “sanctuary city” policies wherein local law enforcement are barred from assisting in federal immigration enforcement. Trump has targeted cities and states that have adopted such laws, and last week a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled the administration cannot withhold emergency funding from Illinois and other states based on those states’ refusal to participate in immigration enforcement.

...masked federal agents deployed a chemical irritant ...

But this week, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he learned of another attempt by the White House to divert disaster relief funding from Illinois with four days remaining in the fiscal year “without any notice or explanation.”

Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem visited Illinois again on Friday. Noem has traveled to the Chicago area and Springfield several times this year, including last month when she oversaw an early morning raid in Elgin, where at least one U.S. citizen was arrested. “Secretary Noem should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability,” Pritzker said in a statement.

On Friday, Noem appeared with Gregory Bovino, commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol, at the Broadview ICE facility with a camera crew, according to Chicago’s ABC 7.

Late Friday, Pritzker also said he’s making state resources available to people affected by a Sept. 30 raid on a South Shore apartment building.

In Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, masked federal agents deployed a chemical irritant outside of a grocery store as people and cars lined up to block their advancement, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, condemned the action, which happened around the corner from an elementary school in her district. Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes also alleges she was handcuffed by immigration agents while questioning them at a Humboldt Park medical center.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

TAGS: Trump National Guard deployment, Illinois ICE raids, JB Pritzker reaction, Chicago protests, Operation Midway Blitz

Darren Bailey is back, Illinois gubernatorial candidate launches second campaign bid

Darren Bailey kicks off his second gubernatorial campaign with a renewed focus on Chicago and its suburbs.

by Ben Szalinski
Capitol News Illinois

BLOOMINGTON - Darren Bailey’s second campaign for governor will take a different approach to Chicago and its suburbs following his unsuccessful 2022 bid, the downstate farmer and former Republican state lawmaker told supporters Thursday.

“This journey is going to look different than it did four years ago,” Bailey said at the second leg of a three-stop campaign kickoff tour in Bloomington. “We're out to win. We're on a mission.”

Bailey began the campaign in downstate Carterville before taking a helicopter owned and piloted by his son to Bloomington, then departing for his opening rally in Oak Brook later in the evening.

Illinois governor candidate Darren Bailey — Former Republican State Sen. Darren Bailey speaks to supporters at a rally in Bloomington to open his 2026 campaign for governor on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. Bailey named Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar as his running mate.

Bailey, who called Chicago a “hellhole” four years ago, is emphasizing that his campaign will focus more on the city and its suburbs than in 2022. He chose Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar as his running mate, and his campaign logo now includes the skyline of Chicago. Bailey told reporters he believes voters in the Chicago area are more dissatisfied with Gov. JB Pritzker than in 2022.

“The people in Cook County, in Chicago are affected much more, I believe, than they were, you know, four years ago,” Bailey told reporters. “So staying on, you know, the message is really pretty simple and pretty obvious. I mean, taxes are too high. Opportunity doesn't exist. Our children are moving out of the state, and people just simply can't afford to be able to live and work here.”

Bailey argued he and Del Mar can relate more to an average person’s economic struggles than Pritzker — their billionaire opponent if they win the March 17 primary. They said affordability will be their top issue. Bailey pointed to a poll last month by a conservative policy organization that showed Pritzker’s approval rating below 50% for the first time. He said he believes there’s growing momentum for a Republican candidate, despite Pritzker winning the past two elections by double digits.

“The climate here in Illinois is a lot more obvious and conducive than it was three and four years ago,” he said. “People have woke up and they've realized that, ‘wow, why did we just go through these last three years?’ And that they're tired of it.”

Bailey owns and operates a more than 12,000-acre farm in Clay County south of Effingham.

After losing to Pritzker, Bailey lost a congressional primary in 2024. Democrats didn’t show any disappointment in seeing him on the ticket again. Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association President Mark Guethle said in a statement Bailey’s decision to run again is “fine by us!”

A new running mate

Bailey said he had not been planning to run for governor until a few weeks ago. Friends encouraged him to consider picking Del Mar as his running mate, he said, despite the pair’s history of disagreements. They met earlier this month to iron out their differences.

“We put it aside; we let the bygones be bygones,” Del Mar said. “And we came out and we said we're going to run together as a team. We're going to bring everybody from the southern area, from the country. We're going to bring everybody from the north.”

Del Mar has long been active in suburban Republican politics and was McHenry County businessman Gary Rabine’s running mate in the 2022 GOP primary for governor. He told Bailey’s supporters on Thursday that he had been planning to run for governor himself. Bailey’s 2022 running mate was Stephanie Trussell, a DuPage County resident and conservative radio host.

Who is Darren Bailey

Bailey owns and operates a more than 12,000-acre farm in Clay County south of Effingham. He’s made the farmer lifestyle a pillar of his statewide campaigns as he often discusses learning the values of hard work and family from the farm. In 2022, Bailey ran a TV ad about building his business by working with his hands. It drew a contrast to Pritzker who inherited wealth, though Pritzker also had a long philanthropic and business career before becoming governor.

He was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018, but his political profile exploded in 2020 after he filed lawsuits challenging Illinois’ stay-at-home and mask orders in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuits helped lionize Bailey among Illinois conservatives who believed the public health restrictions were illegal for the governor to impose.

Bailey won a race for Illinois Senate in 2020 and then launched his 2022 campaign for governor hoping to capitalize on his growing reputation as the most vocal opponent to pandemic mitigations in the legislature.

Bailey’s past results

Bailey cruised to victory in the 2022 Republican primary with 57% of the vote in a field of six candidates. He trounced the favored candidate of establishment Republicans, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who also had a fundraising advantage over Bailey.

But Irvin struggled to articulate his positions on issues while Bailey appealed to conservative voters. Some of that appeal came with the help of Pritzker’s campaign, who, along with the Democratic Governors Association, ran TV ads attacking Bailey during the primary as “too conservative” for Illinois.

The ads boosted Bailey’s conservative credentials in the partisan contest, helping Bailey win 100 of 102 counties. He struggled to gain traction in the general election against Pritzker, though. Bailey's tough-on-crime message failed to land with voters and Pritzker cruised to a 13-point victory that was called within minutes of the polls closing. Bailey won 42% of the vote, including just 24% of Cook County voters.

Darren Bailey speaks at press conference during his first campaign — State Sen. Darren Bailey appears at a news conference alongside law enforcement officers during his 2022 campaign for governor. Bailey plans a second run for Illinois governor in 2026 with Aaron Del Mar as his running mate.

Bailey came back to the campaign trail in 2024 and billed himself as a more conservative alternative to Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in the 12th Congressional District across southern Illinois. Bost was an ally of President Donald Trump, who endorsed Bost over Bailey, despite endorsing Bailey’s candidacy for governor. Bailey came up about 2,700 votes short.

Bailey told reporters on Thursday he has not spoken with Trump but would consider seeking his endorsement. Bailey joins the Republican primary field of DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, conservative researcher Ted Dabrowski and Lake Forest businessman Joe Severino.

If first you don't succeed ... Darren Bailey plans second run for Illinois governor in 2026

by Ben Szalinski
Capitol News Illinois

Bailey, who lost to JB Pritzker in 2022, re-enters the governor’s race with new campaign strategy.

SPRINGFIELD - Darren Bailey plans to run for governor for a second time in 2026, Capitol News Illinois confirmed with sources close to the campaign.

The former state senator and farmer from Clay County would become the highest-profile Republican to enter the race, having lost the 2022 campaign against Gov. JB Pritzker and a close primary race in 2024 against U.S. Rep. Mike Bost for a downstate congressional seat.

A formal announcement is expected next week. News of the planned announcement was first reported by NBC Chicago on Monday afternoon.

Bailey rose to statewide notoriety in 2020 as a state lawmaker who opposed mask mandates and other COVID-19 emergency actions early in the pandemic. He capitalized on his opposition to Pritzker-imposed restrictions and ran for governor in 2022.

Bailey plans to enlist Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar as his running mate

Bailey easily won the Republican primary that year with 57 percent of the vote. His campaign was indirectly helped by Pritzker, who ran TV ads during the primary calling Bailey “too conservative” for Illinois, which helped boost his credentials with Republican voters.

But Pritzker handily won a second term with 55 percent of the vote, defeating Bailey by 13 points in a race the Associated Press called just moments after polls closed. Pritzker spent millions on his campaign as Bailey struggled to compete despite receiving financial help from Lake Forest billionaire Dick Uihlein.

Bailey then tried to unseat Bost in 2024 in the 12th Congressional District but came up about 2,700 votes short. While he received President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race, Trump endorsed Bost over Bailey in 2024.

New running mate

Bailey plans to enlist Cook County Republican Party Chair Aaron Del Mar as his running mate, a source said.

Del Mar ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 alongside Gary Rabine, receiving 6.5 percent of the vote.

He was elected to lead the Cook County Republican Party earlier this year, marking the second time he has held that role after previously leading the party in the early 2010s. He is also a member of the Illinois GOP’s State Central Committee and serves as Palatine Township’s highway commissioner.

Outside of politics, Del Mar has led a career in business and as an entrepreneur.

Bailey ran in 2022 with Stephanie Trussell, a conservative radio host from the suburbs.

Bailey’s message

It is unclear how Bailey plans to overcome his 2022 loss and what message he will take to voters in 2026.

He focused much of his 2022 campaign on crime and public safety, criticizing the SAFE-T Act and bashing Chicago as a “hellhole.”

The message failed to gain traction with voters, however, as Democrats focused heavily on abortion rights in the months after Roe v. Wade was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Facebook has been Bailey’s primary communication platform to voters, and in recent weeks, he has focused many of his posts on Pritzker and ways he believes the governor has failed Illinois. Like other Republicans, Bailey has criticized Pritzker’s growing national profile.

“In 2026, we have the chance to stop him,” Bailey wrote in a post Monday. “But it will take ALL of us. Every Illinoisan who knows we deserve better. Together, we can end JB’s presidential ambitions before they even begin and finally turn Illinois around.”

Darren Bailey at the 2023 Illinois State Fair — Former state senator and unsuccessful candidate for governor and later Congress Darren Bailey is pictured at the 2023 Illinois State Fair during his unsuccessful congressional campaign.

Bailey would become at least the fourth candidate to enter the Republican primary for governor, which has been slowly taking shape this fall.

DuPage County Sheriff Jim Mendrick, Lake Forest resident Joe Severino, and conservative media writer Ted Dabrowski have also formed committees to run for governor.

Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner released a statement Sunday saying he was also considering running.

Pritzker is running for a rare third term as governor amid speculation he will also run for president in 2028.

Candidates must turn their petitions in to the State Board of Elections by the end of October.

Pritzker, Durbin push back against Trump threat to deploy troops in Chicago

Chicago officials warn against federal troop deployment, highlight crime trends, and promise legal challenges to Trump's plan.

Gov. JB Pritzker criticizes the Trump administration

Photo: CNI/Andrew Adams

With Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson standing behind him, Gov. JB Pritzker criticizes the Trump administration’s threat to deploy military forces in Chicago alongside dozens of activists, Democratic politicians and religious leaders in downtown Chicago on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025.

by Ben Szalinski
Capitol News Illinois

CHICAGO - In front of gleaming skyscrapers along the Chicago River, Illinois’ Democratic leaders showed a united front Monday against President Donald Trump’s threats to deploy the military into Chicago’s streets to fight crime with one message: “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.”

“You are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference. “Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.”

The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Pentagon has been considering for weeks deploying the military to Chicago. The report came a day after Trump suggested Chicago will be the next city he sends the military to after he activated the National Guard and other federal law enforcement personnel in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

Thousands of troops could be deployed in Chicago as soon as September, though two officials who spoke to the Post anonymously said the deployment is considered less likely for now.

State leaders said they have not asked for help.

“When I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there — I made the statement that next should be Chicago because Chicago is a killing field right now and they don’t acknowledge it and they say ‘we don’t need them, freedom, freedom, freedom, he’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator,” Trump said Monday. “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”

The state’s leaders said they have not been contacted by the Trump administration asking whether the state wants policing help, and state leaders said they have not asked for help.

“If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab,” Pritzker said.

The state's top Democrats said Trump is targeting Illinois for political reasons.

“This is an act of political theater by Donald Trump, and sadly, we have to take it extremely seriously,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “My friends, don't walk away and say this is just another political issue. This is how democracies die.”

Anticipating Chicagoans will take to the streets to protest if the military arrives, Pritzker encouraged protestors to be peaceful.

“Remember that the members of the military and the National Guard who will be asked to walk these streets are, for the most part, here unwillingly, and remember that they can be court martialed, and their lives ruined if they resist deployment,” Pritzker said.

Legal Questions

Trump’s move faces significant legal questions, and Illinois leaders promised to file lawsuits to block the mobilization of the military.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who has led more than three dozen lawsuits against President Donald Trump’s administration, criticizes the president’s threats to deploy military forces in Chicago on Aug. 25, 2025.

The president and Congress have more powers over Washington, D.C., because of its status as a federal district and not a state, but it’s unclear what legal authority the president is considering applying to send troops to Chicago.

The National Guard is under the control of the governor, though the president has the power to federalize it to quell a rebellion or “unable with the regular forces” to enforce laws. The president can also invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to serve as law enforcement.

This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against...

Those criteria haven’t been met, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said.

Trump’s decision earlier this year to deploy the California National Guard to Los Angeles was challenged and has so far been upheld by a federal appeals court. California argued in that case that the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from acting as a domestic police force. The National Guard was sent to L.A. following protests over Trump’s immigration policies.

“This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against and it's the reason that they established a federal system with a separation of powers built on checks and balances,” Pritzker said. “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is unamerican.”

Raoul noted his office has long had effective crime-fighting partnerships with federal agencies.

“I'm not and have never been opposed to collaborative help from well-trained federal law enforcement agents. Were the president serious about addressing crime or criminal threats in Chicago, he would dedicate more resources to collaborative work that we already engage in with these federal agencies,” Raoul said.

Chicago Crime Trends

Overall crime in Chicago has declined by 13% this year, according to data from the Chicago Police Department. Nearly every category of crime has decreased this year, including murders — down 31%. Chicago has seen 256 murders through Aug. 17 this year, compared to 370 over the same timeframe in 2024. Shooting incidents broadly are down 36%.

Crime in Chicago has trended downward since 2023 and is down 15% overall since then. Incidents of crime are still 40% higher at this point of 2025 than in 2021, though murder is down 50% since 2021 and shooting incidents are down 57%. Felony theft, misdemeanor theft and motor vehicle theft are all up significantly since 2021.

The city’s data portal shows crime has generally been trending down throughout the 21st century from nearly half a million crimes in 2001 to about that level in 2024. The number of annual crimes in the city has been relatively flat for about 10 years, however.

Nationally, Chicago ranked 92nd in violent crime per 100,000 people in 2024 among the nation’s 200 largest cities, according to FBI data. Memphis ranked first and Milwaukee and St. Louis were eighth and ninth, respectively, while Rockford ranked 19th. Chicago had the 22nd highest murder rate and was eighth in robbery.

“I know (Trump) doesn't read, I know he doesn't listen to very many people, but I know he watches television, and so perhaps if somebody from FOX News or from Newsmax is here, they'll cover the fact that Chicago is in much better shape as a result of the work that we are doing to prevent crime,” Pritzker said.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged the city must do more to reduce violence and said the Trump administration should release $800 million in violence prevention funding it has withheld this year and provide more funding for housing.

Also on Monday, Trump signed an executive order seeking to block federal funding to states and cities with cashless bail policies. Illinois eliminated cash bail in 2023 and Trump claimed jurisdictions with it have higher levels of crime. Early research of the first year without cash bail in Illinois did not show an increase in crime.

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DOJ demands sensitive Illinois voter registration information after Illinois responds to initial request

In response to a July letter, the Illinois State Board of Elections provided the U.S. Department of Justice with the same limited voter data that it provides to political parties.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks at rally in August

Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Jerry Nowicki

Gov. JB Pritzker takes questions during a news conference Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Springfield. He defended Illinois’ decentralized election system after signing an unrelated bill.

by Peter Hancock
Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD - The U.S. Department of Justice is insisting Illinois election officials hand over the state’s entire computerized voter registration database, including sensitive information such as driver’s license and partial Social Security numbers.

In a letter dated Thursday, Aug. 14, an attorney in the department’s Civil Rights Division rejected the Illinois State Board of Elections’ offer of a partially redacted database – the same data that state law allows political committees and other governmental agencies to access – insisting that federal authorities are entitled to the complete, unredacted data.

“We have received Illinois’s statewide voter registration list (“VRL”),” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote. “However, as the Attorney General requested, the electronic copy of the statewide VRL must contain all fields, including the registrant’s full name, date of birth, residential address, his or her state driver’s license number or the last four digits of the registrant’s social security number as required under the Help America Vote Act (‘HAVA’) to register individuals for federal elections.”

The letter indicated DOJ was making the request under a provision of the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the “Motor Voter Act,” a 1993 law that was intended to make it easier for people to register whenever they conducted other government business such as obtaining a driver’s license or renewing their vehicle registration.

“Our request is pursuant to the Attorney General’s authority under Section 11 of the NVRA to bring enforcement actions,” the letter stated.

The letter also cited the 2002 Help America Vote Act. Passed in the wake of the controversial 2000 election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, that law made sweeping changes to the nation’s voting processes, including new requirements about how states must maintain accurate and up-to-date voter registration databases.

‘Not entitled to demand’

DOJ first requested a copy of the Illinois database in a July 28 letter. That was a few weeks after the agency filed what’s known as a “statement of interest” in a civil lawsuit that the conservative legal activist group Judicial Watch, along with other plaintiffs, had filed against the state board, alleging it was not meeting its duties under HAVA to maintain the voter database. Read more: Trump administration requests voter data from Illinois elections board

In that initial letter, DOJ also requested the names of all election officials in the state who are responsible for maintaining the registration list. It also asked the state to identify the number of people removed from the registration list during the 2022 election cycle because they were noncitizens, adjudicated incompetent or due to felony convictions.

David Becker, a former attorney in the DOJ’s voting section who now runs the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, told Capitol News Illinois last month that the letter is similar to requests filed in multiple other states and that it goes far beyond the Justice Department’s legal authority.

“The Department of Justice asked for the complete voter file for the state of Illinois, including all fields in that file, which is an absolutely huge file that contains so much sensitive data about Illinois citizens, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth that the Department of Justice is not entitled to receive and not entitled to demand,” he said in an interview. “They know this. Other states have told them this, and yet they continue to seek to receive this information, citing sections of federal law that don’t apply and don’t require that.”

Illinois’ initial response

The State Board of Elections responded to that request Aug. 11 with answers to DOJ’s questions as well as an electronic copy of what it described as the statewide voter registration list.

However, the board also cited a state statute that limits what the agency can disclose from the centralized registration list. A spokesperson for the board said in an email that the law allows the release of two types of data files. One, available only to political committees or “a governmental entity for a governmental purpose,” includes the voters’ names and addresses, their age at the time the registration was completed, the voting jurisdictions in which they reside, and their voting history. That includes elections in which they voted and, in the case of primary elections, which party’s ballot they selected.

That is the list the state board provided to DOJ. The board also waived the normal $500 fee it charges for providing the list. Another version of the file, available to the general public, contains much of the same information, but only the name of the street on which they live, not their exact street address.

But neither file, the spokesman said, contains voters' personal identification information used to verify voter registrations such as driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers.

DOJ, Pritzker respond

In its letter Thursday, however, DOJ said the list that the elections board provided was insufficient. “In charging the Attorney General with enforcement of the voter registration list requirements in HAVA and the NVRA, Congress plainly intended that DOJ be able to conduct an independent review of each state’s list,” Dhillon wrote. “Any statewide prohibitions are preempted by federal law.”

The letter directed the board to provide the information by Aug. 21.

The board spokesman said the latest DOJ letter is “under review.”

On Monday, Pritzker declined to say whether the board’s decision to provide the partially redacted database was the correct one. But he also accused the Trump administration of ulterior motives.

“Well, it's clear why they're hunting around for voter data, right? They're trying to say that in the next election, that there will be fraud because they know they're going to lose,” he said at an unrelated bill signing. “They are looking, essentially, to say that, well, we found somebody who died who's still on the rolls, and therefore there's fraud, and therefore these elections are fraudulent and should be overturned.”

He also defended Illinois’ decentralized election system.

“We have, actually, one of the safest, best systems in the entire country, because it's run by individual county clerks so it's unhackable,” he said.

It is official: JB Pritzker announces run for a third term leading Illinois

If Pritzker decide to run for president, an announcement would likely come at some point in 2027 during what would be the first year of his third term if he’s reelected.

by Ben Szalinski
Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD - Gov. JB Pritzker began his third campaign for governor on last week, but much of the buzz around his 2026 campaign announcement focused on 2028.

Pritzker made four stops around the state to launch his campaign, fielding questions about any future interest in the presidency and what is driving him to run for what would be a historic third term. In his final stop in Springfield on Thursday evening, he was toasting personally branded “JBeers” – his own craft beer product he unveiled at last year’s Democratic National Convention – with a group of about 100 people at a small event venue just outside the Capitol and talking about his motivations.

News from around Illinois “Every day I’m going to wake up going forward thinking about what I am going to do that’s going to help the people of Illinois,” Pritzker told reporters in Springfield when asked how many years of a third term he would serve. “So that’s the reason I’m running for reelection, it’s why I announced today, it’s what I’m going to do every day going forward no matter what decision I make.”

The 60-year-old Democrat’s national profile has grown significantly over the last year. He was a finalist to be former Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate last July, and weeks later, introduced himself to the country on the stage of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the months since President Donald Trump took office, Pritzker has emerged as one of his most vocal critics.

Gov. JB Pritzker takes a picture with Mike Lopez, mayor of nearby Jerome, after announcing his reelection campaign in Springfield on Thursday, June 26.

At news conferences throughout the state, Pritzker did not directly commit to serving a full four-year term if he is reelected and sidestepped questions about his rumored White House ambitions.

But while staying tight-lipped about what he thinks about his prospects in the 2028 presidential election, he said any decision he makes about his future would be Illinois-centric.

Speculation shows Pritzker ‘capable and competent’

In the meantime, Pritzker said he believed his inclusion in the national conversation is good for Illinois.

“When I ran for governor in the first place in 2017 and 2018, never, never could I have imagined that anybody would talk about me as the potential vice-presidential nominee or as a candidate for president of the United States,” Pritzker said.

While Republicans have frequently criticized the governor for his tendencies to criticize Trump rather than work with him to Illinois’ benefit, the governor spun his rising national profile as a positive.

“Having the state of Illinois’ leaders viewed as capable and competent and potentially able to run the entire country and being talked about in that way, allows us, I think, to get more for the people of Illinois because there’s an understanding that, you know, maybe in Illinois we’re doing the right things,” he said. “Maybe in Illinois we have leaders that can competently execute on what states really need.”

Pritzker said his experience last summer being vetted for the vice presidency has not played any role in the decisions he has made about his political career.

Should Pritzker decide to run for president, an announcement would likely come at some point in 2027 during what would be the first year of his third term if he’s reelected.

Pritzker’s goal: ‘Protect’ Illinois and his legacy

Pritzker said at his announcement Thursday that his goal in 2026 is to preserve his legacy and “protect” the story of Illinois that’s been written under his leadership. Pritzker didn’t outline a bold vision for his third term but rather pledged to build off what he has already accomplished.

He said his third term would focus on grappling with artificial intelligence, addressing the rising cost of living, continued spending on infrastructure and growing the state’s economy.

Pritzker reflected on his decision to seek reelection despite growing challenges facing the state.

“I don’t shy away from a fight, and we’re going to have to protect the people of Illinois,” Pritzker told reporters in Springfield. “And I feel like we’re in a moment when backing away from public service when things are hard doesn’t feel right. So that’s one of the reasons I chose to run for reelection.”

Pritzker was asked whether he would have run had Trump not been elected last year.

“I think I would, but I have to say that in this moment, it feels like walking away is the wrong thing to do given who is in the White House and given how this administration is attacking people all across this country,” Pritzker said.

The governor must also choose a new running mate as Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton has decided to run for U.S. Senate. Pritzker said he will choose one by the end of July so his campaign can start circulating nominating petitions in early August. Pritzker said in Chicago that he is looking for someone with enough experience to take over as governor if required.

Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, may be an early front-runner for the job. Pritzker specifically referred to Gordon-Booth as qualified at a stop in East Peoria on Thursday when asked about potential running mates, WGLT reported. The assistant House majority leader has been in the General Assembly since 2009.

Illinois lawmakers seek to reverse law penalizing companies that boycott Israel

Uphill battle for legislation this session comes as Israel faces protests for its war in Gaza.

by Simon Carr & Sonya Dymova
Medill Illinois News Bureau

SPRINGFIELD - A growing number of state lawmakers are moving to repeal a 2015 Illinois law penalizing companies that boycott Israel to protest its policies toward Palestinians.

Amid concerns about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, lawmakers in Springfield supporting human rights for Palestinians have increasingly signed on to legislation opposing the decade-old anti-boycott law. But so far, these bills have stalled.

Illinois’ 2015 law prohibits state pension funds from investing in companies engaging in the Boycott, Divest, Sanction, or BDS, movement against Israel, making Illinois the first U.S. state to enact such legislation, with dozens of other states following suit. The measure, signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, was modeled after similar post-9/11 measures restricting Illinois’ pension funds from investment in companies that engage in business with the governments of Iran and Sudan.

Medill Illinois News Bureau/Simon Carr

Students at DePaul University’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment face counterprotesters in May 2024. This encampment was one of at least 130 similar campus protests last year, which highlighted concerns that Israel was engaging in human rights violations.

When boycotting Israel became grounds for blacklisting, Illinois lawmakers established the Illinois Investment Policy Board, tasked with investigating companies' investment choices. Opponents of the laws have warned they curtail free speech. Israel is the only country for which boycotting is penalized in Illinois by the board.

To repeal this policy, Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, D-Bridgeview, introduced House Bill 2723, and Sen. Mike Porfirio, D-Bridgeview, introduced Senate Bill 2462 earlier this year. Since then, some 22 co-sponsors were added in the House and Senate, while two of those later had their names removed.

“This is about the right for people to advocate for what they believe — in this particular case, for human rights advocacy — without the state telling you what you have to believe and how you have to act,” said Rashid, the first Palestinian-American to serve in the Illinois House of Representatives. “It is a matter of making sure that Illinois is on the right side of history — not participating in the oppression of the Palestinian people – but it is also about making sure the Illinoisans and companies that do business in Illinois are not being forced and bullied and retaliated against because they chose to stand for human rights.”

Thirty companies are currently on the Illinois Investment Policy Board’s prohibited entity list for boycotting Israel. In 2021, Unilever, for example, was added to that list after its subsidiary — ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s — announced it would stop selling its products in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as defined by the United Nations. While remaining a supporter of Israel, the company said it did not support “an internationally recognised illegal occupation.”

Thousands of bills, the vast majority of those proposed, get stuck in the Rules Committee every year for various reasons.

Chicago-based investment firm Morningstar narrowly avoided state divestment in 2022, when the Illinois Investment Policy Board accused the firm’s subsidiary, Sustainalytics, of having an anti-Israel bias. The company then commissioned an independent report that found evidence of anti-Israel bias in Morningstar’s standalone product, Human Rights Radar.

Morningstar agreed to accept a series of recommendations, including discontinuing the Human Rights Radar and no longer taking input from the United Nations Human Rights Council, in order to avoid state divestment.

Wavering support

While President Trump-supporting Republicans and right-wing activists rail against a bipartisan national bill that would toughen penalties for boycotting Israel’s government, Illinois’ Democratic supermajority legislature appears hesitant to put an end to its 2015 anti-boycott law, which passed unanimously in both houses.

Rashid’s and Porfirio’s bills have stalled in committee despite the initial support from about one-fifth of the Democratic caucus, including the leaders of the Latino, Black and Progressive caucuses.

Thousands of bills, the vast majority of those proposed, get stuck in the Rules Committee every year for various reasons. In HB 2723’s case, the holdup can be attributed in part to the political costs of supporting the bill, advocates said.

Deanna Othman ... said HB 2723 is urgent, citing both a humanitarian crisis and a crisis of free speech.

Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey, was listed as a cosponsor on March 20, and Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, signed onto the bill on April 2, but both had their names removed on April 8. Neither senator responded to a request for comment on their reasoning.

Porfirio, the Senate bill’s chief sponsor, said “I will continue to discuss the measure with my colleagues, to ensure that our pension system is well-informed, equitable and responsible” in an email. Its chief cosponsors — Karina Villa, D-West Chicago; Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, and Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet — all declined or failed to respond to requests for comment.

“Even though it had quite an impressive list of sponsors and cosponsors, it's a controversial piece of legislation that is likely to engender a lot of debate that most legislators don't want to vote on, because they either have Jewish or Palestinian constituents, or both,” said Dick Simpson, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former Chicago alderman. “Why should they vote on something that isn't going to pass and then cause some constituents to be mad at them?”

But Deanna Othman, member of the Chicago chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, said HB 2723 is urgent, citing both a humanitarian crisis and a crisis of free speech.

“Unfortunately, it's more relevant now than ever, because we've seen all of the crackdown on student protesters and people who engage in boycott and people who are just voicing their First Amendment rights,” Othman said. “If I cannot stand up for the rights of my fellow Palestinians, whose rights can I stand up for?”

‘It’s impossible to tell if this bill will ever pass’

Activists say they are hopeful a repeal of the anti-BDS law will pass in 2026 if it continues to stall this year. But it remains an uphill battle, even as they point to a steady decrease in American popular support for Israel.

About 53% of Americans express an unfavorable opinion of Israel, according to a Pew Research Center study conducted last month. This is an increase from March 2022, when that figure was 42%.

The survey found the share of Americans with little or no trust in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do the right thing for global affairs” increased significantly from 2023 to 2024. Since Oct. 7, over 52,000 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. An estimated 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and around 250 Israelis were taken hostage.

The pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy group J Street does not oppose boycott initiatives “that explicitly support a two-state solution and recognize Israel’s right to exist,” according to a statement of its policies. “It is critical to maintain the distinction between boycott efforts that work against the interests of Israel, and initiatives which are limited to opposing the occupation. We neither oppose nor call for these initiatives,” the group said in a statement.

But J Street does oppose the broader Global BDS Movement, which advocates for three tenets: That Israel should stop policing the border on and occupying legally Palestinian land, that Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel should have full equality with Jewish citizens and that Palestinians be allowed to return to their homes, as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

Lesley Williams, an activist with Evanston Ceasefire who has been lobbying to repeal Illinois’ anti-BDS law, said the three tenets don’t mean “Israel needs to stop existing.”

“That doesn't mean that non-Palestinians should be forced to leave Israel,” she said. “It just says the Palestinians should have equal rights in that territory and that Israel should be following United Nations resolutions.”

Pritzker is going to try to run for president in 2028, and he doesn't want anything to happen in the GA that could be used as an albatross on his neck ...

The original sponsor of the 2015 anti-BDS law in the House, then Rep. (now Sen.) Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, declined several requests for comment. However, when a 2022 Crain’s Chicago Business op-ed criticized Feigenholtz’s legislation, arguing it was “raising the specter of McCarthy-like scrutiny.” Feigenholtz issued a statement defending her law.

“Israel is the singular democracy in the Middle East that has historically been a consistent ally to the United States,” Feigenholtz said at the time. “Boycotts of Israel, like Ben & Jerry’s/Unilever, are intended to harm and weaken Israel.” She added, “No one’s free speech is curtailed.”

Ben and Jerry’s co-founders Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who no longer run the company, denied the boycott was anti-Israel or antisemitic in a 2021 op-ed. They said it was merely a rejection of Israeli policy, and that Ben and Jerry’s was in fact advancing justice and human rights, both “core tenets of Judaism.”

Given the controversy surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian divide, many political obstacles to these current bills passing will probably remain next year. Politicians are less likely to discuss controversial issues like the BDS movement when there’s a supermajority of one party — in Illinois’ case, Democrats — for fear of factionalizing, said Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University.

Even if a repeal of the anti-BDS law makes it through the legislature, Gov. JB Pritzker may still be an obstacle, Burge added.

“Pritzker is going to try to run for president in 2028, and he doesn't want anything to happen in the GA that could be used as an albatross on his neck when he runs for the primary in a couple years,” Burge said. Should anti-BDS legislation reach Pritzker’s desk, “The Governor will carefully review this piece of legislation,” the governor’s press secretary, Alex Gough, said in an email.

“It’s impossible to tell if this bill will ever pass, and the reason for that is it's impossible to predict where the Israeli and Palestinian war will be next year,” Simpson said. “I don't know, if Israel does carry through on its threats to move all the Palestinians out of Gaza and to permanently take control, that might provide enough anger to cause it to pass. But it is just predicting.”

Simon Carr and Sonya Dymova are students in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and are fellows in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.

Editor's Note:
This story has been updated to include a comment from Sen. Mike Porfirio that was received before publish and inadvertently omitted from a previous version. Capitol News Illinois regrets the error.

State health care programs for noncitizens provided significant benefits for Illinois hospitals

The programs have been controversial since they were first proposed. Republicans have been especially critical, saying the programs serve as an incentive for immigrants to cross into the United States illegally and settle in Illinois to receive taxpayer-funded health benefits.

by Peter Hancock
Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD – Two state-run health care programs that extend Medicaid-like coverage to noncitizens may have provided significant financial benefits for Illinois hospitals.

That’s according to preliminary results of an ongoing study at the University of Chicago that suggests the programs corresponded, at least in part, to a 15% reduction in the amount of bad debt Illinois hospitals incurred each year since the programs have been in full effect.

“The number that we find is a 15% reduction,” Aresha Martinez-Cardoso, an assistant professor and researcher at U of C’s Embodying Racism Lab, where the study is being conducted, said in an interview. “We think that that might be a high estimate, given what we know about perhaps other things that are going on that we can't entirely rule out, but we do think that part of that reduction is associated with the policy.”

That translates to an average of $1.5 million per year, per hospital, according to the report, although the exact amount would vary greatly depending on a hospital’s size and the volume of patients it treats who are covered by the programs. “Our early findings show that this landmark policy isn’t just about access — it also serves as a strategic investment in our hospitals and the health of entire communities,” Martinez-Cardoso said.

Those findings come as Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration is preparing to shut down the larger of the two programs as part of his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, or HBIA, currently covers more than 31,000 eligible noncitizens aged 42-64, at a cost of about $21 million per month, according to the most recent data from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

The other program, Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors, covers eligible noncitizens aged 65 and over. That program currently covers about 8,900 individuals at a cost of about $10 million per month. Pritzker has not proposed eliminating it.

The programs were launched in 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a means of extending health coverage to individuals who did not qualify for other publicly funded health care programs solely due to their immigration status. Those include individuals who are in the United States without legal authorization as well as certain legal permanent residents who have not yet been in the country long enough to qualify for Medicaid.

With the state facing slow revenue growth and a projected budget deficit in the coming year, Pritzker surprised many of his supporters in February when he proposed closing the HBIA program.

Eliminating the program for middle-aged adults is projected to save the general revenue fund about $330 million, according to the governor’s office. Pritzker told reporters after his address in February he expects the federal government will stop reimbursing states for costs associated with programs providing services to noncitizens.

A week after the governor’s budget address, the Illinois Auditor General released a report that said enrollment in both programs and their eventual costs had far exceeded their original projection. The cost for the two programs, the report said, exceeded $1.6 billion over the course of four fiscal years.

Unlike Medicaid, which is jointly funded with state and federal funds, the health programs for noncitizens are funded almost entirely with state dollars.

The study looked at publicly available hospital financial reports to analyze changes in the amount of uncompensated care they provided from 2017 to 2023. It also looked at similar data from hospitals in Indiana and Wisconsin, neighboring states that do not provide health benefits for noncitizens.

“We tried to flip it a few different ways,” Martinez-Cardoso said in an interview. “There could be a lot of other things happening. But when we test a bunch of different models … we kind of see a consistent pattern that the policy timing is associated with bad debt.”

She said the results so far are only preliminary and that analysis of the data is continuing. But she said the analysis so far shows a strong link between the enactment of the programs and an overall reduction in uncollectable debt.

Letter to the Editor |
Pritzker can't call the kettle black

Dear Editor,

During his recent budget address, Gov. JB Pritzker pretentiously proclaimed, "We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one," referring to President Trump. '

Ironic when you consider it was Pritzker who issued at least 41 consecutive disaster proclamations related to COVID-19 between 2020 and 2023, and over 100 specific executive orders tied to the pandemic. These orders included stay-at-home mandates, school and business closures, mask requirements, and vaccination mandates for certain workers.

Pritzker’s unilateral rule in Illinois disqualifies him from making public complaints about kings, fascists, and tyrants in America.

Moreover, his repeated attempts to redefine and paint political opponents as “Nazis” is getting very old.

Pritzker and his allies want the public to believe that “Nazis” are on the right side of the political spectrum. They are being deceitful. The National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi) was organized to advance socialism. They advocated big government policies, putting them on the left side of the political spectrum. Think "Medicare for all," "universal Pre-K," and "universal free college," among others. Sound familiar?

The governor doth protest too much, methinks.

David E. Smith, Executive Director
Illinois Family Institute

Got something you want to get off your chest? Send us your letter to the editor today. Here is how: Read this.

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