Op-Ed: Kathy Salvi: JB Pritzker puts illegal border crossers before Illinois families

Illinois is hurting under JB Pritzker’s iron-clad fist.

While President Donald Trump won the presidency in an historic landslide election and is now preparing for his second term, the 2028 Democratic primary for president is already underway — and it’s not looking promising. 

At the forefront of the Democrats doing anything in their power for airtime and attention is Gov. JB Pritzker (D., Ill.). A serial tax-and-spend Democrat who has driven business and families out of Illinois, Pritzker is looking to propel himself away from the state he helped drive into the ground toward federal office, twisting himself into a pretzel to praise Joe Biden and get in the good graces of Kamala Harris in 2024.

Now that she’s failed, Pritzker is already pivoting towards 2028. 

Instead of advocating for and supporting Illinois families, Pritzker is picking fights with President Trump to garner national attention. His top priority now? Prioritizing illegal border crossers and hundreds of millions in taxpayer spending to house and support them, all at the expense of Illinois families. 

Last Wednesday, Pritzker joined MSNBC and laid out his radical agenda: “I am going to do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants.”

Well, there you have it: Pritzker is proudly declaring Illinois a haven for illegals. Without knowing who they are, why they are here, or what they want, Pritzker is acting as a beacon, guiding illegal border crossers including criminals into our communities. As illegals continue to rush into our country, Pritzker is sending the message: “Come to Illinois — we’ll protect you.”

Don’t forget, when Chicago became a central hub of the border crisis, it was all thanks to Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot picking a fight with Gov. Greg Abbott (R., Texas) in April of 2021. Abbott’s understandable response: take these folks off our hands. 

Pritzker is making it clear that his top policy priority is ensuring Illinois remains open to illegal immigration. Last week, as President Trump appointed Tom Homan, a former police officer and Border Patrol agent, as his “Border Czar,” Pritzker immediately responded by threatening to sue the federal government over deportations of criminals.

As Homan put it: game on. Pritzker puts mass illegal immigration before Illinois families. Pritzker has failed Illinois and our families are worse off under his far-left policies that have raised taxes and forced families and businesses to flee the state. 

The truth is that we in Illinois are 3 years into this illegal immigration crisis, creating a massive burden on our families. This past February, despite a $1 billion budget shortfall and an additional $638 million spending spree, Pritzker issued $750 million in tax hikes and allocated millions of additional taxpayer money to house and feed thousands of illegal migrants as the state’s homelessness rate continues to rise.

Meanwhile in the city of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson pledged millions in spending for illegals over the hundreds of millions promised to the Chicago Teachers Union and the recent complete embarrassment of losing his budget vote 50-0. 

What’s worse, Chicago and Illinois mismanaged millions in funding for crises affecting Illinois residents. Since 2021, Illinois has only been kept afloat by COVID-era federal funding. Despite highlighting his “fiscal responsibility” in his reelection campaign, bills were only paid because federal dollars were spent to reduce the state’s overwhelming debt. Despite this federal bailout in all but name, Pritzker has continued to grow the budget and impose billions in tax hikes.

Additionally, the city of Chicago’s spending for illegal border crossers lacks transparency regarding over $400 million, and Illinois citizens completely shoulder the burden of rising healthcare costs for illegals.

Altogether, providing food, housing, and healthcare for illegals costs Illinois well over $1 billion. That’s $1 billion the state can’t afford.

That’s $1 billion taken from legal American citizens struggling with inflation and homelessness. And according to Pritzker – this is just the beginning. 

Sadly, but unsurprisingly, we have not heard solutions from Pritzker, just more divisive rhetoric and threats to fight against President Trump and his conservative populist movement. Pritzker’s policy positions stoke fearmongering that “Trump is bad” with nothing to back it up.

Illinois is hurting under JB Pritzker’s iron-clad fist. Instead of focusing on solutions, Pritzker has been perfectly clear — his policies promote illegals over Illinois’s working men and women and families.

Kathy Salvi is the Chair of the Illinois Republican Party.