Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has urged ICE Barbie Kristi Noem to let kids enjoy the Halloween holiday and stop the clampdown on migrants.
He wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem “respectfully requesting” the suspension of citywide operations from Friday through Sunday, “so children can safely celebrate Halloween.”
Chicago has been a high priority battleground for federal immigration agents where a children’s parade was targeted and a judge has tightened oversight of Border Patrol officers.
“Please let children be children for one holiday, free from intimidation and fear,” the 60-year-old wrote to Noem, 53, in a letter obtained and reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd M. Lyons, and Rodney S. Scott, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees Border Patrol, were also CCd.
Pritzker warned of “tear gas or other chemical agents” near schools, hospitals, parks, and other gatherings, and cited the administration’s scrapping of past “sensitive locations” guidance.
Pritzker’s letter urges DHS to “stand down from any actions that could endanger or harm perfectly innocent children.”
He added, “Illinois families deserve to spend Halloween weekend without fear.
“No child should be forced to inhale tear gas or other chemical agents while trick or treating in their own neighborhood.”
His appeal comes after agents fired tear gas last Saturday in Old Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois, as families walked to a parade.
DHS has maintained that agents faced a hostile crowd and issued warnings before deploying chemical agents, but witnesses have said they heard none.
Pritzker writes that an unannounced Oct. 26 tear-gas deployment on the Northwest Side, if accurate, “would have been in direct violation of statements and directives from your administration.”
Pritzker’s plea comes amid mounting fallout from the same weekend. Video showed Border Patrol agents dragging a 67-year-old U.S. citizen from his car near the kids’ parade, with his running club saying he suffered six broken ribs and internal bleeding.
The incident has since come under legal scrutiny. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Border Patrol’s controversial commander Gregory Bovino to meet with her in court daily to account for Chicago operations under “Operation Midway Blitz,” and set body-camera and identification rules for agents.
Ellis told an unrepentant Bovino, who was last week filmed throwing tear gas at protestors, “Those kids were tear-gassed on their way to celebrate Halloween, in their local school parking lot. And I can only imagine how terrified they were.”
A day later, an appeals court blocked the daily-briefing requirement pending further review, with lawyers for the government saying the Trump administration would be “irreparably harmed” by the demand.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.
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