Cash, guns, and enough fentanyl to kill 10 million people was strewn across a table in front of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference in Chicago on Friday.
“Because these federal officers have been out on the streets picking up criminals and dangerous individuals, we were able to take this 20 kilograms of fentanyl off the streets and save over 10 million lives,” Noem said. Twenty kilograms is the equivalent of 44 pounds.
While Noem celebrated the work of federal law enforcement agents, she also sharply criticized some Democrat elected leaders in Illinois, who she says are getting in the way of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers doing their job.
“I’m here today because the elected leaders in this state of Illinois are ignoring the law. In fact, they’re being obstructionists when it comes to getting dangerous criminals off of their streets,” she said.
“They are deciding the dangerous criminals—that are murderers, rapists, money launderers, have committed assault, that are trafficking children—are more important than the families that live in the communities here,” Noem said. The secretary specifically cited Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, among those who are impeding the work of ICE.
“Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson are answering that question every single day of who should be our priority, who should be our responsibility, and over and over again, they’re choosing criminals,” Noem said.
Illinois and Chicago are sanctuary jurisdictions, meaning they have “policies, laws, or regulations that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws,” according to the Justice Department.
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January and commissioned Noem and border czar Tom Homan to rapidly arrest and deport illegal aliens, prioritizing the apprehension and removal of criminal illegal aliens, ICE officers have faced a 1,000% increase in assaults, according to DHS.
The uptick in violence against federal immigration officials is “in large part due to the pro-sanctuary state and city policies, and the language of elected bureaucrats and politicians,” Noem said.
ICE is actively recruiting new ICE agents and encouraging retired agents to consider returning to the job following a removal of age restrictions on ICE officers and the allocation of much more funding in Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” for ICE to hire 10,000 new agents.
Even with the increase in attacks on ICE agents, Noem said DHS has received more than 80,000 applications to join ICE in just over a week.
Noem called on Illinois officials to support law enforcement officers, put citizens ahead of criminal illegal aliens, and “think about the family members around you … the American citizens that live next door in your community. Start thinking about what kind of a community they want to live in.”
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