Two days after President-elect Donald Trump’s “border czar” declared that mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would start in Chicago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker once more pledged that Illinois would defend all immigrants, saying additionally repeatedly sharing the will to deport undocumented folks. convicted of violent crimes.
“Let me be clear up entrance: Violent criminals who’re undocumented and convicted of violent crimes ought to be deported. I do not need them in my state. I do not assume they need to be within the United States,” Pritzker mentioned Wednesday at an unrelated occasion in Chicago.
The governor mentioned he’ll work to guard migrants looking for asylum, documented immigrants and undocumented individuals who have lived, labored and paid taxes within the United States for a few years.
Those remarks echoed his guarantees final month to guard his state from Trump administration insurance policies he sees as dangerous, declaring quickly after the election: “Come for my folks, come via me.”
On Monday, Tom Homan, Trump’s hand-picked border affairs official, mentioned at a Northwest Side Republican occasion that the mass deportations promised by the Trump administration “will begin proper right here in Chicago,” in accordance with information reviews.
Asked Wednesday if he would work with Homan, Pritzker mentioned he would work “similar to I do every single day, with federal, state and native regulation enforcement, on different issues.”
The governor mentioned he could be “open to dialogue” with Homan as a part of the Trump administration, however reiterated his perception that Homan doesn’t have the authority to hold out the sorts of mass deportations Trump has spoken of.
Trump has made immigration considerations a key subject in his marketing campaign, and whereas Homan’s place isn’t a part of the president-elect’s Senate-confirmed Cabinet, he believes he performs an essential function in guiding the White House’s border coverage.
Pritzker criticized Homan for “giving a political speech at a metropolis political group and attacking the folks you’ll shortly serve.”
“When you’re taking over as governor, you serve all of the folks as you serve on this place and I anticipate him to do the identical in his place,” Pritzker mentioned.
The governor’s remarks got here at a press occasion the place he introduced an govt order supposed to extend the state’s provide of inexpensive housing for working-class and middle-income households.
The order creates a brand new place throughout the governor’s workplace, the Director of Illinois Housing Solutions, who can be tasked with growing the availability of homebuying and rental choices for middle-class households, he mentioned. Pritzker mentioned. No one has but been appointed to that place and the wage has not been decided, he mentioned.
Additionally, the state is reinstating a homebuying program that might supply Illinoisans down cost and/or closing price help, in addition to as much as $40,000 in scholar mortgage reduction, the governor mentioned.
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