Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker took to MSNBC this week, speaking with host Joy Reid about his intention to resist Donald Trump’s proposed mass deportation plans if Trump is reinstated in 2024.
However, as much as Pritzker postured, his statements revealed a more limited ability to interfere with federal immigration enforcement than Reid and some viewers might hope. His attempts at reassuring his base, underscored by Illinois’s sanctuary policies, were notably thin when stacked against federal authority.
The conversation hit an intense note early on when Reid asked Pritzker if Illinois could prevent the federal government from building detention facilities, which she referred to as “internment camps.” This comparison sidestepped a basic reality: illegal immigrants detained in the United States are being held because they violated immigration law.
The comparison to internment camps draws historical parallels that simply don’t apply; internment, by definition, means people are forcibly held without due process, whereas immigration detention results from noncompliance with legal standards. As other nations do, the United States has a right to enforce its borders, a fundamental aspect of national sovereignty that has been undermined by lax policies over the past four years.
IL Gov. Pritzker: "I will do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants. They are residents of our state." pic.twitter.com/7f1Fp7ZgkY
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) November 14, 2024
Pritzker’s response laid bare his limitations. He began by explaining that Illinois laws restrict state and local facilities—jails and prisons—from detaining illegal immigrants for the purpose of federal deportation. However, as he explained, this doesn’t apply to federal facilities, which are exempt from state jurisdiction.
He then pointed to the TRUST Act, an Illinois law preventing local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Still, he had to admit that Illinois has no control over ICE or other federal agencies’ actions within the state. Pritzker acknowledged, “We can not prohibit them, federal law enforcement, from coming into our state to conduct raids or do anything else like that.”
For all Pritzker’s grandstanding, this quote underscores a clear truth: the federal government has the right to enforce immigration laws as it sees fit, regardless of state-level sanctuary policies. As Pritzker himself admitted, the state’s noncooperation stance—its so-called sanctuary policies—won’t stop ICE from executing its mission within Illinois borders.
Pritzker’s attempt to reassure viewers fell flat. His reliance on the TRUST Act and state regulations around local law enforcement coordination is hardly a roadblock to the Department of Homeland Security.
For the past four years, Reid and others have echoed a talking point that only the federal government holds the authority to regulate immigration policy—often ignoring states like Texas that demanded stricter enforcement. Now, with the shift in power, the message remains the same, though the goalposts have clearly shifted.