(Editor's note: This article was published first at Illinois Policy Institute)
Gov. JB Pritzker was asked last week for his response to press conferences where some lawmakers called for an end to Illinois’ status as a sanctuary or welcoming state and want more transparency on what’s being spent on migrants.
Here are the key parts of Pritzker’s answer, which are in a minute-and-a-half video:
The discussion about being a welcoming state or a sanctuary state, all of that discussion has always been about what are we going to do about the undocumented people that have been here for decades. They’ve been holding down jobs. They have apartments or places to live. They are essentially acting as all of the other residents of Illinois are acting…. So on the question about the challenges that are brought up in a press conference like that have zero to do with the current migration crisis that’s occurring which is being fueled by the governor of Texas…. And the governor of Texas causing problems state by state to the states he chooses to send people to, and concentrate them, that ought not be the way we address this.
That’s hogwash.
The debate about being a welcoming or sanctuary state is most certainly not about people who have been here for decades, and it couldn’t be more clear. Most of the controversy has focused on about 35,000 bused to Chicago from Texas who only recently crossed the border, and they are just the start. Last year alone, border agents recorded more than 2.4 million encounters at the Southwest border and more than 3.2 million encounters nationwide, and at least 1.7 million known gotaways have evaded apprehension since 2021.
We have little idea how many of those are ending up in Illinois beyond those bused in, although our share surely is huge. We do know that the Illinois budget includes $550 million for the health care subsidies for non-citizens in Illinois over the age of 42 – not Dreamers – and the projected annual is $833 million. The state had to freeze new enrollees last year to help contain those costs.
Pritzker was blatantly trying to misuse widespread sympathy for those called Dreamers or DACAs – those who were brought into the United States before age 16 and resided here since 2007. They are currently protected from deportation and most Americans want them naturalized in some way. They definitely are not behind today’s controversy and crisis.
As for blaming Texas Governor Abbott for busing migrants to Illinois, Pritzker’s hypocrisy is mind-blowing. Just this month, Pritzker issued yet another immigration emergency power proclamation saying Illinois is a “welcoming state,” proudly listing some of the assistance the state offers: emergency shelter and housing; food; health screenings, medical assessments and treatment; case management services including legal services and job readiness support; benefits for victims of trafficking, torture, and other serious crimes; enrollment in public schools; and longer-term housing and housing assistance.
In other words, invite the guests and shower them with gifts, then blame the delivery man when they show up.
Pritzker preceded his answer by saying he didn’t want to “give a tutorial on the difference between undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers,” asylum seekers being legally in this country, he said.
It’s good he spared us his tutorial. Asylum seekers did enter the country illegally – though they stay here legally pending a decision on their asylum status.
More importantly, nobody should claim that those who are lying to get asylum status are here legally. Doing so is an Orwellian attempt to change the plain meaning of words.
Most migrants are economic refugees, not political refugees as they claim, thereby voiding asylum status. The vast majority of their asylum requests will be denied, often because they don’t show up for their assigned hearings. As few as 10% of asylum seekers will be granted that status, according to some. While that percentage is debated, nobody denies that over half of asylum claims will be rejected.
Here’s how the former Consul General of Venezuela in Chicago recently put it, referring to the most recent bus arrivals of Venezuelans: “When they request asylum in the United States, migrants have to say something against their government. But everyone in the Venezuelan community knows that it’s a lie.”
As usual, nobody in the Illinois media called Pritzker out on any of this. The illegal immigration crisis is surging on a foundation of lies, hypocrisy and distortion, the full consequences of which are yet to be inflicted.