J.B. Pritzker has urged ICE Barbie Kristi Noem to let kids enjoy Halloween and stop the clampdown on migrants.
The Illinois governor wrote to the homeland security secretary “respectfully requesting” the suspension of citywide operations from Friday through Sunday, “so children can safely celebrate Halloween.”
Chicago has been a high priority battleground for federal immigration agents where a children’s parade was targeted and a judge has tightened oversight of Border Patrol officers.
“Please let children be children for one holiday, free from intimidation and fear,” the 60-year-old wrote to Noem, 53, in a letter obtained and reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and Rodney S. Scott, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol, were CC’d.
Pritzker warned of “tear gas or other chemical agents” near schools, hospitals, parks, and other gatherings, and cited the administration’s scrapping of past “sensitive locations” guidance.
Pritzker’s letter urged DHS to “stand down from any actions that could endanger or harm perfectly innocent children.”
He added, “Illinois families deserve to spend Halloween weekend without fear.
“No child should be forced to inhale tear gas or other chemical agents while trick or treating in their own neighborhood.”
His appeal comes after agents fired tear gas Saturday in Old Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois, as families walked to a parade.
DHS has maintained that agents faced a hostile crowd and issued warnings before deploying chemical agents, but witnesses said they heard none.
Pritzker wrote that the unannounced tear-gas deployment Saturday on the northwest side, if accurate, “would have been in direct violation of statements and directives from your administration.”
Pritzker’s plea comes amid mounting fallout from the same weekend. Video showed Border Patrol agents dragging a 67-year-old U.S. citizen from his car near the kids’ parade, with his running club saying the man suffered six broken ribs and internal bleeding.
The incident has since come under legal scrutiny. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino to meet with her in court daily to account for Chicago operations under “Operation Midway Blitz,” and set body-camera and identification rules for agents.
Ellis told an unrepentant Bovino, who was filmed throwing tear gas at protesters last week: “Those kids were tear-gassed on their way to celebrate Halloween, in their local school parking lot. And I can only imagine how terrified they were.”
A day later, an appeals court blocked the daily-briefing requirement pending further review, with lawyers for the government saying the Trump administration would be “irreparably harmed” by the demand.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Beast: “Once again Governor Pritzker is going out of his way to smear the law enforcement officers of DHS, who are attempting to clean up the rampant crime he facilitated
“He is pushing a false narrative that DHS is targeting schools, hospitals, and churches. This is false, he knows this, but he continues to push these lies.”
