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.








