Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to pause federal immigration enforcement operations around Halloween, after a neighborhood raid this week disrupted a children’s parade.
“No child should be forced to inhale tear gas or other chemical agents while trick or treating in their own neighborhood,” Pritzker wrote Wednesday in a letter to Noem, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and Border Patrol Commissioner Matthew Scott.
In the letter, Pritzker referenced the operation earlier this week on the northwest side of Chicago in which agents deployed tear gas as children were gathering for a costume parade.
The episode prompted a warning to ICE officials from a federal judge reviewing the actions of agents taking part in “Operation Midway Blitz,” the Trump administration’s surge of federal forces into the Chicago area, ostensibly to fight gangs.
In a Thursday news conference, Pritzker lambasted the crackdown, accusing agents of targeting innocent “Black and brown” people instead of “the worst of the worst” criminals, as Noem has previously said. “I’m asking for basic human decency,” Pritzker said at the news conference. “Give the children and families of Illinois a break.” The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment on Pritzker’s request.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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