The office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker doubled down on the Democrats' weekend assertion that President Donald Trump's federal immigration crackdown in the crime-plagued city is about going to war and not about "fighting crime," The Hill reported Tuesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday began operations in Chicago targeting the "worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens." However, a spokesperson for Pritzker reiterated what the billionaire and 2028 presidential hopeful said over the weekend — Trump is waging war on Chicago.
"As Trump has said himself, this is not about seriously fighting crime or reforming immigration — it's about Trump's plan to go to war with America's third-largest city," Matt Hill said in a statement to NewsNation.
Trump on Sunday, rebutting Pritzker's first assertion that he's "threatening to go to war with an American city," said it's about cleaning up American cities.
"We're going to clean them up, so they don't kill five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense."
The Department of Homeland Security announced "Operation Midway Blitz" in honor of Katie Abraham, who was killed in a drunken driving hit-and-run car crash caused by criminal illegal alien Julio Cucul-Bol.
DHS also released a list of a handful of "the worst of the worst" criminal illegal aliens — including gang members, drug traffickers, kidnappers, and rapists — who were released back onto Illinois streets because of Gov. Pritzker's sanctuary policies.
Chicago has led the nation in homicides for 13 straight years, according to Wirepoints, a public policy research group. The city also ranks seventh among the top 20 U.S. cities in homicide rate, with 28.7 per 100,000 people in 2025, according to The Global Statistics.
"Once again, this isn't about fighting crime. That requires support and coordination — yet we've experienced nothing like that over the past several weeks," Pritzker said in a post to X on Monday, a point reiterated by his spokesperson on Tuesday.
"The Governor's Office has received no formal communication or information from the Trump Administration. Like the public and press, we are learning of their operations through their social media as they attempt to produce a reality television show," Hill told NewsNation.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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