Note to readers from Mark Glennon re: Ukraine
May 6, 2026
4 Comments
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
This is analogous to Jimmy Carter’s 1977 pardon of draft dodgers. Yes, they had violated the law. But (assuming no other crimes) they’d lived peacefully since, and society gained by allowing them to fully participate.
From what I’ve heard and read, Ray Lopez is a very reasonable person, as alders go.
I’ve got an even better plan. Self deport. Take the free airline ticket and $1000.
Then once you’re back home, make Mexico great again and don’t come back.
“Alderman Raymond Lopez wrote to the president and proposed that noncitizens with clean criminal records in the country for more than 10 years pay a $2,500 fee to gain pardon and amnesty.”?Ronald Reagan signed the last Amnesty Bill back in the 80’s, what happened? Per Google AI: “Reagan’s administration believed the law would create “a reasonable, fair, orderly, and secure system of immigration”. However, many later analyses point out that the promised enforcement measures did not fully materialize, leading some critics to argue that the amnesty in effect encouraged future waves of illegal immigration, an outcome that would have “infuriated”… Read more »
“I’m always open to a conversation with the president.” – Pritzker. He should have been talking directly with Trump, DHS, ICE since January. He should have negotiated ground rules for cooperation with ICE to deport criminals. Yes, Trump is ham handed but Pritzker knows that and rather than engaging chose to rant and rave which was/is not productive, though it may be politically helpful in the “progressive” world.
The proposal would keep anyone with no criminal convictions who has been here illegally for more than ten years here. In other words, a free pass. Of course JB would like to start there and get the 10 years reduced to 10 minutes and turn the free pass into citizenship. None of this reduces the burden on actual citizens who pay taxes and don’t use the myriad of social programs now being used by such upstanding long-term illegal migrants. Alderman Lopez’s proposal should be DOA.
If they were serious that would be starting with the $1,000 a DAY since they entered the country illegally, if they can’t pay this BYE BYE.
Pritzker is open to a conversation? What role does Pritzker imagine he plays in setting federal immigration policy?
1.7 million “gotaways” got past the border patrol net during the Biden presidency. Biden deported over a million. Hardly unchecked.
Nice evasion, making it only about gotaways.