Federal officials won’t pause operations Midway Blitz and At Large over Halloween and Día de los Muertos, Kristi Noem, secretary of Homeland Security, said Thursday.
Gov. JB Pritzker had asked the federal government — in a letter to Noem and during a Thursday news conference — to pause the immigration enforcement operations over the weekend as families and children celebrated Halloween and Día de los Muertos.
Pritzker’s ask came just days after federal agents tear-gassed an Old Irving Park street shortly before a children’s Halloween party was to be held nearby. Chicago organizers are preparing indoor trick-or-treat events, candy dropoffs and neighborhood patrols in a bid to help vulnerable families feel safer during the holiday.
But Noem shot down Pritzker’s idea during a Thursday news conference — and said there’s no plan for the end of the operations.
“The fact that Gov. Pritzker is asking for that is shameful and I think unfortunate that he doesn’t recognize how important the work is to make sure that we’re bringing criminals to justice,” Noem said. “Especially when we’re going to send all our kiddos out on the street… we want to make sure they’re safe.”
But critics of the immigration enforcement operations have said it is federal agents who are making kids — and others — unsafe.
“Give the children and the families of Illinois a break,” Pritzker said at his own news conference Thursday. “Show us this is about something other than you just causing mayhem on our streets and visiting cruelty upon our people. Can we agree that there is no imminent threat that should disrupt your holiday?”
“No children in America should have to go trick-or-treating in fear that they might be confronted with armed federal agents and have to inhale tear gas.”And U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis admonished Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino for agents’ actions in Old Irving Park.
“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer,” Ellis told Bovino during a Tuesday court hearing. “They just don’t. And you can’t use riot control weapons against them.”Pritzker also repeatedly criticized federal officials’ claims that they’re targeting “the worst of the worst” when it comes to their enforcement operation.
Instead, federal and local law enforcement should work together to arrest violent criminals, Pritzker said.
If federal agents “have a judicial warrant for someone, you can come get local law enforcement, state law enforcement to help you go get that person,” Pritzker said. “That is absolutely the law. Instead, it’s become obvious that some of these federal agents and the people in charge of them, well, they are the people that our families should be afraid of.”
