Editorial: House Republicans are handing JB Pritzker an opportunity to campaign

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on May 13, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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In a little over a month, Gov. JB Pritzker will be one of three governors of so-called sanctuary states testifying before the U.S. House Oversight Committee.

Republicans who run that panel held a similar session in early March in which Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was one of four mayors put on the spot about laws that forbid local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement except under very limited conditions, such as when there’s a criminal arrest warrant pending against someone not authorized to be in the country.

The GOP struggled in that session to shake the resolve of big-city mayors, including Johnson, to defend and uphold their laws. We have little reason to believe the result will be different when Pritzker travels to Washington, D.C., for the June 12 hearing along with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Indeed, Republicans might well be doing Pritzker a favor here, given that our governor appears to have his sights set on a White House run in 2028 and is building a national political brand centered on confrontation with the Trump administration.

What better exposure could he ask for than to be able to confront his political adversaries face to face? Polling consistently shows Americans don’t approve of deporting and imprisoning people without providing due process.

Illinoisans got a preview of the spectacle to come when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came to Springfield last week and criticized Pritzker, citing cases in which undocumented immigrants committed crimes. Her decision to stage the press conference near the house where Springfield activist Emma Shafer was killed nearly two years ago, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend without authorization to remain in the U.S., created a firestorm.

Shafer’s mother protested Noem’s use of her daughter’s story, and Noem’s claims that Illinois policies bar state or local police from cooperating with the feds in capturing and prosecuting the accused, Gabriel P. Calixto, weren’t true. In a case such as Calixto’s, where a criminal warrant is pending, local authorities absolutely can work with federal authorities — and in this situation in fact are doing so, with the U.S. Marshals Service.

No doubt Shafer’s tragic story will resurface in Washington when Pritzker is called to testify. And the governor will be able to reiterate all of the above.

Which makes us wonder what sort of political strategizing House Republicans are doing in giving Pritzker such a platform and making them foils as he continues to raise his profile in the presidential competition to come.

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