Donald Trump rained down political hellfire on Colombia today, after their president refused two planes full of Colombians who were in the United States illegally. Trump threats of sanctions, the revocation of visas, and increased scrutiny for all things Colombian at Customs made President Gustavo Petro bend the knee in under an hour.
Now it's time for Donald Trump to do that at home.
And I suggest he start with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker:
Dem Ill. Gov. Pritzker vows to ‘stand in way’ of certain Trump deportation policies, protect ‘law-abiding’ illegal migrants https://t.co/6Dsse2ypyq pic.twitter.com/OjCjr6qJ8E
— New York Post (@nypost) January 26, 2025
Dem Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Sunday vowed to 'stand in the way’' of certain Trump deportation policies, including those targeting 'law-abiding' illegal migrants.
'When we’re talking about violent criminals who’ve been convicted and who are undocumented, we don’t want them in our state,' Pritzker, 60, told CNN’s 'State of the Union.' 'We want them out of the country.
'We hope they do get deported,' he said, referring to Trump’s policy of targeting illegal migrant criminals first under his mass deportation plan.
But 'we also have a law in the books in Illinois that says that our local law enforcement will stand up for those law-abiding undocumented people in our state,' he said.
First, I must note the shift in tone of Pritzker's rhetoric. Back in November, Pritzker said his state would not cooperate with any deportations of illegal immigrants.
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Now it's just the 'law-abiding' illegal immigrants Pritzker means to defend.
Except there's no such thing, and the term 'law-abiding illegal immigrant' is an oxymoron. Every person who enters the United States without proper authorization has broken federal immigration law. Full stop.
They are all, to some degree, criminal.
The priority -- and Trump seems to agree -- is the removal of the illegal immigrants who have committed additional crimes while in the United States first. And I'm fine with that. But even 'law-abiding' illegal immigrants are subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government, and Donald Trump's administration has every right to deport them.
We have a sitting governor of the state with the nation's third-largest city openly arguing that he will ignore federal immigration law and willfully interfere with the enforcement of those laws.
Donald Trump needs to make an example of Pritzker and Illinois.
He can start by freezing the billions in federal funding sent to Illinois. In fiscal year 2021, that was $36.5 billion. The Port of Chicago is subject to Customs and Border Patrol, too. Perhaps stopping receipt and export of goods that need to go through customs at the port is something else to consider. Suspending disbursement of federal aid to colleges and universities in Illinois would also be a good idea.
And, of course, authorities cannot be afraid to arrest -- quite publicly -- politicians like Pritzker if they continue to thwart federal immigration enforcement.
Throughout all of it, Donald Trump and the administration need to make the message clear: we will be enforcing federal immigration law in every city, in every state. Those who refuse to cooperate, or activel obstruct, those efforts will face consequences.
Make it hurt to the point Pritzker himself is calling ICE on illegal immigrants in his state.
Set an example for the rest of the country and the world. America's open borders are closed, and her sanctuary cities no longer exist.
