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“This is precisely the federal and interstate overreach we warned against — gubernatorial authority being trampled, state sovereignty being ignored, and the constitutional balance between states being attacked,” Gov. JB Pritzker wrote in a letter addressed to NGA Chair Kevin Stitt, of Oklahoma.
Aldermen have already approved this year over $300 million to settle police-related lawsuits, a historic amount that smashes past records.
Johnson has boxed himself in politically by ruling out a property tax increase. He has also slammed the door on employee layoffs and furlough days that could alienate the unions that put him in office. That sets the stage for a political showdown. Said Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson. “This will be a baseball game that maybe goes beyond the regular nine innings that we’re used to, and into extra innings.”
Gov. JB Pritzker said he hoped the the state’s GOP leaders would stand up for him. “We Democrats would, I would stand up for you. I hope you would stand up for me. Neither one of them, I asked them to simply to post something publicly or put a statement out, anything. It seems like just common decency to just say, ‘This is wrong,’ and they wouldn’t do it,” Pritzker said.
“The Trump administration has made it clear that immigration law will be enforced, and that sanctuary cities do not get to nullify federal authority. Chicago’s response has been to escalate confrontation with federal agents. They call it exercising constitutional rights. In reality, it is an organized obstruction of justice.”
The state covers up to 65 percent of operating expenses for all downstate transit agencies. But because of rising costs and lackluster economic growth in downstate communities that hinder sales tax revenue, funding shortfalls are growing. Combined with slower property tax growth outside the Chicago area, those economic factors make it hard for local governments to cover 35 percent of public transportation costs.
Running on the message that “we can do better,” Ted Dabrowski is currently one of three Republicans on the March 17 GOP primary ballot who hope to replace current Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who is currently unopposed for his party’s nomination for re-election.
Gov. JB Pritzker has threatened to leave the National Governors Association of the group won’t speak out against Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard against U.S. cities. He sees the militarization of ICE and Border Patrol agents as a normalizing precursor to establishing a military presence in cities in time to interfere with the 2026 election.
The exchange came during Attorney General Pam Bondi’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin pressing Bondi to justify the deployment. Bondi refused to detail her communications with the White House, but she said the troops are there to protect the residents of Chicago.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to bar federal agents from, among other things, indiscriminately using chemical weapons against journalists, asserting their First Amendment right to report.
“They want those families to be afraid because they see the tides are turning, that you have more conscientious people who understand our collective responsibility from one to another,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “It’s white men who are afraid of people being educated. That’s what they are afraid of. It’s while they’re sowing seeds of division within communities. They’re afraid of us uniting.”
At least three Illinois teachers unions threatened to strike at the start of this school year. This scare tactic of holding students’ hostage is an unfair bargaining tactic that is illegal in 37 other states, including Illinois’ neighbors.
In the Illinois lawsuits, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the activists and journalists assert ICE is to blame entirely for “provoking” otherwise peaceful activists to respond and become increasingly hostile to federal agents. They assert the constant protests and attempts to block the streets around the Broadview facility do not in any way impede ICE from carrying out its lawful duties and immigration enforcement actions.
While Gov. JB Pritzker has zeroed in on President Trump’s attacks on freedoms and the U.S. Constitution, Johnson has gone even further, defending against Trump’s attacks on the working-class and people of color. And it’s working.
A suspected Latin Kings gang member has been charged with allegedly placing a bounty on U.S. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, according to the Department of Justice.
Pritzker’s open and obvious attempts to frustrate federal law enforcement, promoting and protecting obstruction by protestors, flirts dangerously with insurrection. Not since segregationists defied federal civil rights laws have we seen anything like this.
“The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get Noem’s thugs the hell out of Chicago. I’m not afraid. I am not afraid and I won’t back down,” Gov. JB Pritzker said, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Lawsuit is the latest escalation between the administration and Democratic-led states.
“In the coming days and weeks, we may be pushed, if not forced, to take even more dramatic action if this administration continues to escalate and provoke our people,” Johnson told reporters. Pressed to elaborate, he said, “Everything. Everything, whatever is necessary to ensure that we’re protecting people.”
A federal judge Monday declined to immediately block the Trump administration from sending National Guard troops to Chicago, but she strongly urged federal officials to hold off deploying guardsmen until Thursday, when she will hear arguments in the case.
“This is pure politics controlling our police,” Ald. Anthony Napolitano said. “A lot of people at City Hall feel the same way, even if they won’t say it out loud. The mayor’s administration is trying to create chaos—so that federal help looks catastrophic instead of helpful. It’s politics over public safety, and it’s outrageous. Officers swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the mayor.”
Brian Costin, of Americans for Prosperity-Illinois: “Pritzker’s administration has already showered selective subsidies on green energy, film production, electric vehicles and data centers — always celebrated with ribbon cuttings and press releases. But a 2018 Mercatus Center study found that if Illinois eliminated economic development incentives, it could lower the corporate income tax from 9.5 percent to 6.36 percent, the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 5.75 percent, and the personal income tax from 4.95 percent to 4.75 percent with no loss of revenue.”
Richard Porter: “The governor wants Illinois to go to the mat to protect illegal immigrants from being deported and prevent the feds from fighting violent crime in Chicago. To champion his misguided priorities, Pritzker is willing to sacrifice federal dollars and increased jobs, while ensuring Illinois residents will pay higher taxes. Think about that. It’s slightly less stupid than going to war to protect slavery.”
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