‘Get out of your mansion and see Chicago’: DHS responds to Pritzker, releases list debunking his claims about Chicago operations

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote a blunt response, via an official statement, against Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, accusing him of offering the American public a "mishmash of lies" by publishing a detailed list discrediting his statements about federal immigration operations in the city.

The federal response comes amid growing tension, following a lawsuit filed Monday by the Democratic governor and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to block the deployment of hundreds of Illinois National Guard troops and Texas in the city and surrounding areas.

"Our message to JB Pritzker: get out of your mansion and get to know Chicago," DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated in the release. "If J.B. Pritzker actually walked the streets of his own city, he would see domestic terrorists and violent rioters attacking police officers and the scourge of violent crime as a direct result of his own policies.”

DHS emphasized that it is "setting the record straight about Pritzker’s lies and defending the brave men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from his smears and slander.”

The lawsuit against the deployment of the National Guard

The confrontation escalated hours after Pritzker and Johnson announced a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, alleging that the troop deployment violates local sovereignty and constitutional limits on the use of military forces in domestic immigration matters.

The White House confirmed Saturday that President Trump had authorized the deployment of 300 National Guard members to "protect federal officers and assets" amid riots and "disorder" in Chicago, despite objections from the governor, who called it "absolutely egregious and un-American."

During a press conference Monday, Pritzker denounced an "unconstitutional invasion of Illinois by the federal government" and accused Trump, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino of bringing "militarized CBP and ICE agents into the streets of Chicago to cause violence and mayhem."

DHS, for its part, rejected these claims point-by-point in its Claim vs. Reality list, arguing that the operations are part of "Operation Midway Blitz," an initiative that has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests of undocumented immigrants with criminal records, including pedophiles, child molesters, kidnappers, gang members and armed robbers. "This is neither unconstitutional nor an invasion. President Trump has the authority under the Constitution to deploy troops, wherever they’re stationed, to defend federal facilities from attacks."

Key denials: From the South Shore raid to the Franklin Park shooting

One of the focal points of the dispute is the break-in at an apartment building in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. Pritzker, in an interview with CNN, described how federal agents broke windows, broke down doors, ransacked the place and evacuated 130 people, including children, in the dead of night, allegedly chasing gang members but terrorizing innocent residents. “People are getting detained, they’re getting arrested: U.S. Citizens,” he claimed.

DHS corrected him, “law enforcement conducted a targeted operation at an apartment building in the South Shore community of Chicago. This operation, conducted by the CBP, the FBI, and the ATF, resulted in the arrest of 37 illegal aliens, from such countries as Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, and Nigeria. Among them were Tren de Aragua gang members and violent criminals.”

In addition, the department categorically denied arresting or deporting U.S. citizens, clarifying that any detention of locals is due to obstruction or aggression to authorities.

Another controversial incident is the Sept. 12 fatal shooting in Franklin Park, a Chicago suburb. Pritzker recounted that ICE "shot and killed a man" named Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, who “had just dropped his kids off at a daycare and was headed to work.”

The department countered that Villegas-Gonzalez was an undocumented immigrant with a history of reckless driving, who, when ordered to stop his vehicle, drove it into officers. "One of the ICE officers was hit by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing for his own life and broader public safety, the officer fired his weapon, the statement detailed. Despite the injuries, officers initiated emergency medical care, but the individual was pronounced dead at the scene.

As for the protests in Broadview, a town of 8,000 people, Pritzker alleged that federal agents turned "two blocks of protest areas into a war zone" by firing tear gas and chemical agents at "peaceful protesters."

DHS responded that "rioters against DHS and other law enforcement in Illinois have been anything but peaceful” and cited ambushes over the weekend, where Border Patrol agents were attacked by vehicles: one woman, Marimar Martinez, was carrying a semiautomatic weapon and was wounded in self-defense; the other driver, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, was detained.