Can Illinois hold the feds accountable for immigration crackdown?

It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, Illinois, Operation Midway Blitz and the quest for accountability. No! No! He's not doing anything. He's not doing anything. He's a senator! He's a senator! I just want my baby back. He's not an immigrant. He was born and raised in Chicago. That's a snippet from a video montage featuring dramatic scenes of the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown last fall in Chicago, known as Operation Midway Blitz. The minute and a half video, which shows arrests, vehicle stops, and Trump administration officials, opened the fourth day of hearings of the Illinois Accountability Commission. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker established the commission late last year to create a public record of the weeks-long immigration crackdown throughout the Chicago area. Good afternoon, Ms. Moriarty. Hello. Thank you for being with us here today. Do you need a moment? No, I'm OK. Over the past six months, the commission has conducted interviews with 60 people, including Evanston lawyer Jennifer Moriarty. Moriarty was thrown to the ground when she tried to film the aftermath of federal agents slamming on their brakes, causing another car to hit them. I got out of my car. I always had my purse around my neck like this. And I had my cell phone and I walked around to the side of the driver's side and they had this young woman on the ground. And I had my cell phone out and I was going to start recording. And one of the agents that were right there immediately turned around, grabbed me by the neck and threw me back on the ground and got on top of me. Proceeded to try and handcuff me. I wasn't resisting. In lengthy, detailed testimony, Moriarty recounted being handcuffed, pushed into a vehicle, and an agent cutting her purse from around her neck with a knife. Moriarty was never arrested and never charged. As her testimony ended, Commission member Ahmed Bassett asked Moriarty how the experience had affected her. It's insane. I, too, chose this. My grandfather was an appellate court judge for the state of New York. I grew up admiring him as an amazing man, and I wanted to be like him. Law and order. Everybody follows the rules. You know, it works out. And that's not what's happening now. Consider this. The Illinois Accountability Commission has spent months investigating Operation Midway Blitz, yet there's no way to hold anyone legally responsible. Coming up, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker weighs in. From NPR I Scott Detrow Every day NPR reports stories that keep you informed without fear or favor That's the promise of a free press and a democracy. It's in the First Amendment. I'm Tom Bowman, and I cover the Pentagon for NPR. Stand up for independent news coverage today by donating early for public media giving days coming up on May 1st and 2nd. Give now at donate.npr.org. It's Consider This from NPR. The Illinois state government has been investigating the United States federal government. Specifically, a panel called the Illinois Accountability Commission has been conducting interviews and reviewing footage from last year's federal immigration enforcement crackdown in Chicago, known as Operation Midway Blitz. The Illinois Accountability Commission was created by an executive order of Governor J.B. Pritzker. Governor Pritzker joins us now. Welcome to All Things Considered. Glad to be with you, Scott. Today was the last day of the hearings. Lots of video, lots of testimony as we heard. What sticks with you? Well, you know, the testimony of the eyewitnesses, the people who experienced the onslaught of CBP and ICE in our streets, was very powerful. We heard from Miramar Martinez, who was a young woman who was sitting in her car. She saw ICE and CBP doing things that she knew were wrong. You know, they were going after tackling brown and black people, people with accents, people who were U.S. citizens and here legally, people who hadn't broken any laws. And she started yelling and beeping her horn. And you know what they did? They shot her five times. And she wasn't the only one in Chicago. There was Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez who was killed by ICE and CBP. And this all happened before people paid attention in Minneapolis. We really had to develop a playbook to deal with this. And one of those items in our playbook was everybody pull out your phone. Take a video. When you see them doing something wrong, keep evidence. And then this Accountability Commission took that testimony and video, live testimony from people who were there, legal experts, and so on. And this was led by a federal judge, a state senior judge, and they did deep dives into 16 different investigations. They interviewed 60 eyewitnesses. They reviewed over 100 hours of ICE and CBP body camera footage, 250 different videos, lots of work done. What does accountability look like to you? Because these federal agents have broad immunity if not the complete immunity that President Trump claims What is accountability I glad you asked because first of all that evidence has already been used in federal court cases to limit ICE and CVP and what they can do on our streets. It also has been used to fight back against Donald Trump trying to deploy National Guard into our streets. Indeed, it was our attorney general who won the case at the Supreme Court that keeps National Guard from being deployed in any American city right now. So that's part of what's been done. That's an accountability item. The other, of course, is that these folks need to know that they may not be held accountable by this administration. They may not be held accountable by this Department of Homeland Security or CBP or ICE, Bovino, Holman, the rest of them. But they can be held accountable when those people are out of office, when there's a new administration or a new Congress. Do you think or worry that President Trump will issue broad pardons to ICE and Border Patrol agents before he leaves office? I think he's going to do that. The question is, can you really pardon the entire federal government? Can you really pardon all of CBP and ICE? Maybe he will. But also people can be held civilly liable for their personal actions here. So they – look, what I want people to know is if you're an ICE agent, a CBP agent, and you're on the streets of any American city, we're keeping track. And if you do something wrong now, you're going to be held accountable later. So think twice before you break the law. On that topic of later accountability, I'll just note – it's not the point of the question, but I'll just note you mentioned in the conversation about people thinking of running for president in the next election. When a new administration comes in, what do you want to see the federal government do reviewing what happened in Chicago, what happened in Minneapolis, what happened elsewhere? Well, I think it would start with a change in the House of Representatives, a change in the Senate, which could happen as early as January of 2027. And that is with hearings. You know, this Republican Congress is unwilling to hold any hearings or ask any questions. It's one of the reasons why everybody's paying attention to our Accountability Commission because we're the only people who are asking those questions and taking a record. So I believe you're going to see that investigation begin in 27. I think it's appropriate. Look, we all should know what's happened. People should know across the country, even if they live in neighborhoods that haven't been under attack yet, because this should never happen again. To that point though you know how partisan the environment is You know how much AI and other factors are just making up facts right now You know that a lot of people are going to see this report and say that a report that came from a Democratic governor a partisan actor and therefore I not going to read it I not going to believe what I heard from it How do you get information to break through in this environment Well first we had testimony from Republicans at this commission So it isn some sort of partisan endeavor We had the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. He's now retired, but he came back in order to appear before the commission. He talked about free and fair elections and the problem of deploying people who are wearing uniforms and masks and automatic weapons and doing that in and around an election, which I believe is going to happen in November. And he warned us against that. And you've seen Republicans stand up against this administration. I do not believe that standing up for democracy has to be some partisan endeavor. You just mentioned your concerns about the November election. I'm curious what you have learned from this commission, what you will take going forward about how state government, how local government can react if there's a strong federal presence again in November or another time? Okay. Well, I think everybody needs to understand that the supremacy clause of the Constitution does allow the federal government to have their laws are supreme over state laws. Having said that, there are ways for states to stand up and push back. I'll give you example. I believe that in the November elections, you're going to see in state after state, you're going to see Democratic governors deploying people to protect polling places, to make sure that even if there are people wearing uniforms, ICE and CBP standing around near polling places, that we're going to be able to escort people into the polling places. We're going to be able to communicate with people to make sure that they know that what ICE and CBP are doing is simply designed to scare you and that it's your opportunity at this moment to stand up for democracy, to do the right thing. This may be the toughest moment, but it is the most crucial moment for people to get out and vote. You're talking about state authorities, perhaps confronting federal authorities outside polling stations. Is that a scenario you're talking about? It's very important to recognize that we're not talking about confrontations with any kind of weapons or anything like that. We are talking about peaceful protests. We are talking about, Like, remember, these elections, all across the country, elections are controlled by the states. And I have always advocated that we, first of all, keep it at the state level. I know Trump would like to federalize elections so that he can take control. And that's Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Scott. This episode was produced by Alejandro Marquez-Hanse and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Patrick Jaron Wadanadan and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.