Dem governor JB Pritzker vows to 'do everything I can to protect our undocumented immigrants'

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Democratic Gov vows to 'do everything I can to protect our undocumented immigrants'

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker warned he would "do everything to protect our undocumented immigrants" when asked if he would fight back against President-elect Trump's mass deportation plan for illegal immigrants.

Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker vowed to protect illegal immigrants in his state when asked if he could "prevent" the incoming administration from building immigrant detention centers in Chicago.

"I am going to do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants. They are residents of our state," Pritzker told MSNBC host Joy Reid on Wednesday. "And I also, obviously, need to make sure that whatever they are doing in our state, the federal government, that it is actually within federal law or state law for them to do it."

Pritzker, who previously issued a stark warning to President-elect Trump after his election victory, said that under Illinois law, immigrant migrant detention centers were prohibited in his state and local law enforcement were generally prohibited from participating in immigration enforcement.

However, he conceded there were some circumstances where his state would work with the federal government to deport illegal immigrants.

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Democratic Illinois Gov.  J.B. Pritzker vowed to "do everything" he could to "protect our undocumented immigrants" in response to President-elect Trumps mass deportation plan. (MSNBC/Screenshot)

"I want to be clear that there are certain circumstances in which the federal government, state governments should work together to allow deportation. An example would be somebody who’s been convicted of a violent crime," he said. 

"But they are talking about rounding up people who are law-abiding undocumented immigrants in this country, many of whom are working, paying taxes, not getting any benefits from those taxes, I might add," he said about Trump's planned mass deportation operation.

 "We cannot prohibit them, federal law enforcement, from coming into our state to, you know, conduct raids or do anything else like that," Pritzker explained to Reid. "Meanwhile, I think it would be very difficult for them to just spread out across the country. They don’t have enough manpower within the Department of Homeland Security in order to carry that out."

Pritzker went on to argue that Trump's mass deportation plan "looks like it may be unconstitutional" but "we have attorneys general that are working on these kinds of issues within the courts."

Another Democratic leader, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, has also vowed to do everything she could to protect illegal migrants in her state who could be deported under Trump's plan.

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Former acting ICE director, Tom Homan, Trump's new "border czar", said Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be empowered to "do their job" in deporting illegal immigrants in the new administration. ((Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images and ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images))

Healey said last week that "every tool in the tool box has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents and protect our states and to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle."

When asked if state police would help with deportations she replied, "No. Absolutely not." 

Former acting ICE director Tom Homan, who Trump recently appointed as "border czar" of his incoming administration, told state leaders to "get out of the way" if they aren't willing to aid the federal government in deporting illegal immigrants.

"If they're not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way because [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] is going to do their job," Homan previously told Fox News Digital.

FILE - A group claiming to be from India sit in the shade of the border wall as they wait to be picked up by Border Patrol after crossing through the border fence in the Tucson Sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, Aug. 29, 2023, in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Lukeville, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File) (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

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Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.