For some days, President Trump has been trolling the City of Chicago and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. It reached a new level with this Truth Social post:
Naval Station Great Lakes is being prepared for an expected inflow of federal agents. Leftists are already protesting there. Pritzker, meanwhile, says that he has informants inside the administration who are keeping him apprised of Trump’s plans. Pritzker has characterized the intended federal operation as an “invasion.”
What is actually going on? The administration can’t use federal forces for ordinary law enforcement, but it can supplement ICE with other federal agencies, like the FBI, to carry out a crackdown on illegal immigration. Presumably that is what is in the works. I am always happy to see illegal aliens rounded up and deported, but that won’t have a major impact on Chicago’s crime problem, which is predominantly home-grown.
Thus, Trump’s suggestion that the coming enforcement action is motivated by Chicago homicides and other violent crimes is perhaps somewhat disingenuous, as is Pritzker’s feigned horror at the prospect of an “invasion.” Both are playing to their respective bases.
In a best-case scenario, federal forces execute an effective immigration crackdown and haul off a considerable number of illegals, including violent illegals, without collateral violence incited by the Left and with a side benefit to the level of crime generally. But I am not at all confident that events will proceed that smoothly.
