Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has warned Trump deputy Stephen Miller that accountability is coming for “clearly ordering people to break the law” during the president’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown.
Pritzker has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard to support ICE raids and quash protests against them, as Chicago becomes the showcase for the administration’s “urban” immigration crackdown.
The governor’s criticism led Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff who is directing the president’s ICE enforcement, this week to brand Pritzker a “moron” who “hates America,” raging, “You can’t love your country and then fight President Trump.”
In response, Pritzker warned on Thursday night that Miller and others in the administration involved in the crackdown could face prosecution once out of power. “It’s not like we’re going to forget, and it’s not like we don’t have a record of what they’re doing,” he said in an interview with MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
The governor added: “They’re not always going to be in office, but… the people who serve for the president, including all the way down to ICE agents, can be held accountable when there’s a change of administration.
“Stephen Miller is clearly ordering people to break the law. So he should know that. And, maybe three years from now, that he [will be] held accountable.”
The clash comes amid federal “urban” operations that U.S. Customs and Border Protection field boss Gregory Bovino has helped lead from Los Angeles to Chicago—deployments that have drawn legal challenges and criticism from Illinois officials.
Discussing others who may eventually find themselves liable for alleged breaches of the law, Pritzker added, “That’s why I mention other people, Tom Homan and Gregory Bovino… who executed… an awful job in Los Angeles. Now he’s doing it in Chicago.
“And so all these people need to recognize that, you may have immunity because Donald Trump is willing to pardon anybody that’s carrying out his unlawful orders, but you’re not going to have it under another administration.”
Before then, Pritzker argued that, since Trump has fired or replaced key inspectors general, undermining internal oversight, Illinois is “looking at all of the options at the local level” to act instead.
He revealed he was exploring prosecutions by county state’s attorneys and the Illinois attorney general against federal officers who violate state laws under Trump, adding that if agents “throw a tear gas canister out of the car” at a person on the roadside, “that… is a violation of Illinois law.”
Advocates and Illinois officials point to state criminal laws that can apply to anyone “acting under color of law.” Two repeatedly cited examples are reckless conduct, which covers acts that recklessly cause bodily harm or endanger safety, and the statewide ban on chokeholds and similar restraints by “a peace officer, or any other person acting under the color of law.”
On Oct. 9, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) limiting the actions of federal officers around protests in northern Illinois. Acording to CBS News, the order bars agents from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists without probable cause, from using physical force on them, and from issuing crowd-dispersal orders absent exigent circumstances.
Ellis has since moved to tighten the TRO. On Thursday, after videos and reports of tear-gas and pepper-ball use during immigration operations, she summoned ICE’s Chicago field director Russell Hott to court over alleged non-compliance and ordered that immigration officers in the Chicago area must wear body cameras during enforcement and protest-adjacent activity.
Separately, also on Thursday, an appeals court upheld an order blocking the White House from deploying National Guard troops in Illinois, ruling that “political opposition is not rebellion” and that the record did not justify the extraordinary step.
Courts and local officials say multiple incidents indicate federal agents defied Ellis’ directives, using chemical agents on crowds without adequate warning and clashing with bystanders, prompting the body-cam mandate and a demand for explanations in open court. Ellis has ordered further hearings.
Pritzker’s volley also touched a broader nerve, questioning Trump’s mental fitness and Miller’s influence. He continued to push the line that Trump has “diminished capacity,” and that those around him, particularly Miller, were “taking advantage” of it.
“It’s clear that Donald Trump has diminished capacity… I think it’s sad that the people around him are not getting him help, and instead they’re just taking advantage of him,” he said.
“And that’s what Stephen Miller is. You can tell, his rhetoric is so out of bounds. And then we know that he’s the one who is advising [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem at DHS.
“He’s the one who’s advising Tom Homan, who’s the kind of immigration czar, deportation czar. And of course, he’s the spokesperson for this entire endeavor, including about deploying National Guard into cities.
“So, I mean, he seems like a dangerous individual, and he has the power of the presidency because the president isn’t reining him in.”
A psychologist told The Daily Beast Podcast in September that signs of Trump’s alleged cognitive deterioration—verbal slips, meandering thought, and confusion at public events—are “readily apparent,” though there has been no official diagnosis.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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