Governor Pritzker Sets An Example in How to Meet This Moment

When Illinois Governor JB Pritzker took the stage at a gathering of New Hampshire Democrats back in April, he knew what he was about to say would rankle plenty of his Democratic colleagues. But Pritzker wasn’t in New Hampshire to court the Establishment. He was there to tell Democrats that some things were actually worth fighting for. 

“For far too long we’ve been guilty of listening to a bunch of do-nothing political types who would tell us that America’s house is not on fire, even as the flames are licking their faces,” Pritzker said. “Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people and trans kids and immigrants instead of their own lack of guts and gumption.” 

Just six months after calling on his fellow Democrats to resist President Donald Trump on every front, the Land of Lincoln’s outspoken governor is putting his theory to the test. Not only has Trump vowed to flood Chicago’s streets with ICE agents and National Guard troops, he’s threatened to arrest Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and any other Democratic lawmakers who resist his latest military occupation. 

Is the man his supporters lovingly call the “Great Khan of the Midwest” ready to go toe-to-toe with a president willing to bend the justice system to prosecute his political enemies? Politically and morally, Pritzker couldn’t have asked for a better moment to become Democrats’ Man in the Arena.

Trump’s latest round of military deployments on October 8th stretches even the expansive legal limits of executive power. Citing vague threats of crime and violence, Trump mobilized roughly 200 soldiers from Texas in addition to 300 members of the Illinois National Guard over Pritzker’s formal objection. Trump’s gambit tossed aside the longstanding precedent that presidents only mobilize a state’s National Guard at the request of (or with permission from) that state’s governor. The move was a clear provocation aimed directly at Pritzker: Do something about it.

What came next was a back-and-forth legal battle that pitted Pritzker’s team against the weight of the president’s lawyers. On October 9, U.S. District Judge April Perry blocked Trump’s troops from deploying to Chicago while savaging the Department of Homeland Security for using “unreliable evidence” to make its case. Two days later, a federal appeals court lifted Perry’s order, meaning troops could — for now — remain in their barracks at the U.S. Army Reserve Center an hour outside of the city.

By then, Pritzker had already moved on to a new gambit. Over the weekend, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act as a way to enforce his deployment over Pritzker’s objections. But, as Pritzker was quick to point out, the Insurrection Act is called the Insurrection Act for a reason, and there was no insurrection in Chicago. The more Pritzker led the way — at press conferences, on Sunday news shows, and across social media — the more the governor found a public willing to follow him. Did he have a message for other states facing Trumpian threats?

“I encourage them to do exactly what we’re doing in Illinois,” Pritzker told me. “We’re standing up, we’re speaking out, and we are totally unafraid to do so. This is a situation that has no parallel in my lifetime and we must hold the administration accountable in every way we can.”

Pritzker also realizes his legal strategy could be short-circuited by the Supreme Court’s Republican supermajority, putting renewed pressure on Democrats to find political solutions to the problem of Trump’s overreach. Until then, the courts remain the best hope of slowing or stopping Trump’s march into militarism.

“We’re taking them to court, and we are winning in circuit and appeals courts. We’ll see what the Supreme Court does on a number of these things, but we must make sure we’re focused on winning in 2026. For now, we must mitigate the damage of the Trump administration through legal action,” said Pritzker.

Still, the governor likes his odds. “We believe in the power of the courts, which is why we’re continuing to fight federal overreach wherever possible.” 

Chicago has long struggled with violence, but it also appears to be following the broader nationwide trend toward lower crime across major cities. The city’s police officials report that violent crime has fallen roughly 23% this year, compared to 2024 levels. Carjackings have fallen by nearly half, and burglaries are down 21%. All that was before Trump unleashed troops and ICE agents with broad remits, lax standards of conduct, and virtually no formal accountability structure to rein in their own violent abuses. 

While Pritzker challenges Trump’s National Guard deployments in court, Chicagoans remain under siege by a swell of ICE agents mobilized by the Department of Justice. Their arrival in the city drew immediate comparisons to the Shock and Awe days of the Iraq War, as journalists handpicked to accompany ICE units broadcasting stunning video of agents rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters and pouring from unmarked armored personnel carriers. Military-style nighttime raids have become the new normal, alongside a concerning spike in the number of American citizens falsely detained during those raids. 

Tear gas, smoke bombs, rubber bullets, and pepper balls are now deployed freely by ICE agents who refuse locals’ requests to produce warrants, identify themselves, and provide falsely detained citizens with lawyers. When local elected officials and media outlets attempt to expose the full extent of ICE’s physical abuses and warrantless raids, they often end up wearing handcuffs themselves.. 

When Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes asked ICE agents to produce a warrant for a resident who had broken his leg during a scuffle with agents at Humboldt Park Health hospital, ICE agents arrested her despite Fuentes not having committed a crime. She was later released without charge. 

A video widely shared online shows WGN News editor Debbie Brockman being thrown to the ground and choked by federal agents who pulled down her pants and dragged her into an unmarked van. Brockman had been documenting an ICE raid on a small group of local landscapers. She, too, was released without charge hours later. ICE declined to provide legal justifications for either of the detentions or to identify any of the agents involved.

Pritzker has seen the videos, and he hopes Chicagoans will keep their heads level even as Trump attempts to sow chaos in the streets.

“I’ve repeatedly encouraged people to know their rights as they peacefully protest throughout the city,” Pritzker said. “If you see something happening, film it so that those who choose to violate people’s rights can be shamed and held accountable to the public.” 

The abuses are far worse for those who lack the ostensible protections of elected office or media notoriety. On October 11, Silverio Villegas Gonzales, 38, failed to show up to his shift at Tom & Gerry’s Gyros, an unassuming Greek diner on Montrose Avenue on the city’s northwest side. Villegas Gonzales didn’t show up because he had been fatally gunned down by ICE agents after dropping his children off for school. Agents alleged they shot Villegas Gonzales out of fear for their lives. Locals who watched the chaos unfold were quick to remark that they never feared for their own lives until ICE came to town. 

“There are truly unconstitutional actions that are coming out of this administration, coming at the states and the people of the United States,” Pritzker told ABC This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday. “All of us, Democrats and Republicans, need to speak out about it.” 

Trump’s military occupation has so far rounded up only a few dozen proven illegal immigrants, while many more of ICE’s warrantless arrests have been ruled illegal by the courts. But the constant presence of masked troops on city streets has nevertheless succeeded in turning the city into a domestic war zone where locals are more likely to be harmed by a federal officer than they are by an undocumented migrant. The landscape of random chaos Trump has created in Chicago is now its own self-justifying excuse for deploying even more troops and federal agents onto the streets. 

For his part, Pritzker has worked to ensure that immigrant communities across Illinois still feel safe calling law enforcement for help during an emergency. The last thing the state needs, Democrats say, is for whole populations to withdraw from the civil society they helped build. Pritzker has been a vocal defender of the state’s sanctuary laws and a champion of the 2017 TRUST Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement activities.

Far from driving Chicagoans into hiding, Trump’s deployment of ICE and National Guard troops appears to be unifying them across party lines in ways not seen in decades. Residents are now forming volunteer community watch groups to monitor their neighborhoods. Others are reporting the locations of federal agents in real time through social media apps, honking car horns and shouts. According to reporting from the New York Times, furious ICE agents have responded to these instances of community solidarity by launching tear gas canisters at peaceful outdoor gatherings. “ICE go home!” has become an omnipresent chant in suburbs that once avoided divisive politics. 

Trump may ultimately win his legal battles thanks to a Supreme Court stacked with his handpicked loyalists, but Pritzker’s vocal opposition and visible leadership have made it almost impossible to win the war for public opinion. A photo in the Times story shows residents of Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood linking arms in peaceful protest following a confrontation with federal agents. Many of those residents now cite Pritzker by name as one of the only politicians in America willing to stand up to Donald Trump. 

Pritzker’s confidence and courage under fire has given Chicagoans the strength to unify in the face of shocking federal brutality. They aren’t afraid of ICE; they are furious, and they aren’t backing down. When asked by national news reporters if they have a message for Trump and his army of masked thugs, locals no longer try to hide their face from the cameras. They stand tall, face forward, and quote their governor: “Come and get me.”