Illinois Governor
Got more questions? WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times provide answers.
The governor said the Trump administration is keeping him in the dark about immigration enforcement and National Guard deployments.
A federal judge said Monday she wouldn’t hear arguments over Illinois’ bid to block the deployment until Thursday, even after a Trump administration lawyer confirmed that Texas troops are on their way.
President Donald Trump’s move comes after Gov. JB Pritzker said earlier this week the Department of Homeland Security requested deployment of 100 military troops to Illinois “for the protection of ICE personnel and facilities.”
Gov. JB Pritzker said the Illinois National Guard obtained a memo that the Department of Homeland Security sent to the Defense Department, which sought to request 100 military personnel for Illinois.
Gov. JB Pritzker says cuts are needed because of the impact to the state of the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which includes tax breaks for billionaires, cuts to food assistance and anticipated reductions in federal Medicaid funding.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, took the unusual step of traveling to Chicago to briefly participate in arguments Monday before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mourners fill the pews at Central Baptist Church near the state Capitol to mourn and praise the moderate two-term Republican.
Kellen McMiller, who faces murder charges, met Pritzker several days before the Louis Vuitton store robbery that left a suburban man dead.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Briefing with Jen Psaki,” the Democratic governor accused President Donald Trump of following an authoritarian playbook by silencing his opponents and urged Americans to “write letters, write e-mails, post online, speak up [and] protest” ABC’s decision.
Illinois Republicans have pointed the finger back at the Democratic governor for stoking political divisions.
Jim Edgar, a moderate Republican, served two terms as Illinois governor from 1991 to 1999. He announced this year that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. Asked how he would be remembered, Mr. Edgar told City Hall reporter Fran Spielman: “He was a good, good public servant.”
State officials could soon issue vaccine recommendations making it easier to get the shots despite new barriers set by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Sources close to the governor told the Sun-Times Ben Bergquam’s video has prompted additional concerns over Pritzker’s safety. The Illinois State Police Executive Protection Unit currently provides 24-hour security for the governor, his family and the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night told reporters that he would focus on sending the National Guard to another city and said he’s working with a governor “who would love us to be there.” The president has yet to announce which city he was referencing.
On an anxiety-filled day for the city, there were sporadic reports of arrests in Chicago’s Latino community as hundreds of federal agents move in — and many residents hunker down.
The conservative southern Illinois farmer lost to Gov. JB Pritzker by more than half a million votes in 2022.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon is challenging a signature accomplishment of Gov. JB Pritzker and getting involved in a case that could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Though crime has fallen in recent years, President Donald Trump is primed to make an example of Chicago this week, when federal immigration agents and National Guard troops are expected to begin blanketing the streets.
The feds are targeting a sex education program for 10,000 disadvantaged young people in a move Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration calls a ‘cruel attack’ on transgender youth