Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) accused the Trump administration on Sunday of deliberately escalating tensions in Chicago to justify deploying more federal troops to the city. Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Pritzker said federal agents were turning routine policing operations into scenes of chaos and fear.
“Instead of going after the bad guys, they’re just picking up people who are brown and black and then checking their credentials,” Pritzker said. “Are you a U.S. citizen? I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry around papers that say I’m a U.S. citizen.”
The governor described a recent federal raid in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, claiming it targeted a handful of gang members but instead terrorized residents. “They broke windows, they broke down doors, they ransacked the place,” he said. “Elderly people and children were zip-tied — elderly people held for three hours at a time. They are the ones that are making it a war zone.”
Pritzker alleged that the Trump administration’s goal is to “create mayhem on the ground” as a pretext for militarizing Chicago. “They want to create the war zone so that they can send in even more troops,” he said. “Now they’re claiming they need 300 of Illinois National Guard. Well, we didn’t need them before they showed up.”
The Illinois governor rejected Trump’s characterization of Chicago as lawless, arguing the administration’s tactics are manufacturing unrest for political gain. “He’s saying that Chicago is a war zone — none of that is true,” Pritzker said. “They’re just making this up. And then what do they do? They fire tear gas and smoke grenades, and they make it look like it’s a war zone.”
Pritzker vowed to resist further federal intervention, accusing Trump officials of using fear and force to score political points rather than addressing the city’s real challenges.
