Pritzker likens Trump’s America to the early days of Nazi Germany

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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has likened President Donald Trump’s America to the early days of Nazi Germany.

Chicago is one of several major cities targeted by Trump’s immigration crackdown. Federal agents arrested more than 4,300 individuals during the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Midway Blitz last year, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing the agency.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration earlier this week, claiming federal agents “have rampaged for months through Chicago and surrounding areas, lawlessly stopping, interrogating, and arresting residents, and attacking them with chemical weapons.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson brushed off the lawsuit as unserious, saying the Trump administration is “enforcing federal law,” per WBEZ Chicago. “Chicago’s lawsuit uses aggressive rhetoric meant to smear law enforcement officers and incite violence against them,” Jackson said.

open image in gallery Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has likened President Donald Trump’s America to the early days of Nazi Germany ( Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Vox Media )

In an interview with independent journalist Aaron Parnas, Pritzker attacked the Trump administration for indiscriminately going after people, comparing it to dictator Adolf Hitler’s leadership in the 20th century.

The governor said that in his state of the state address last February, he “likened what Donald Trump was doing in this country to what was happening in the early days of Nazi Germany.”

“That is where we are right now,” Pritzker said. “They are going after people for being brown and Black. They’re going after people who are U.S. citizens. They’re going after people who’ve done nothing wrong. They do it under the guise of saying that this is about the worst of the worst, but it isn’t.”

The governor said only 2.5 percent of people who were arrested in Illinois under the immigration crackdown had been accused or convicted of a serious crime.

open image in gallery The Illinois governor has criticized the Trump administration for its immigration crackdown, which has reportedly led to thousands of arrests in the state ( Scott Olson/Getty Images )

During his February speech, Pritzker said, “It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic.”

“Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage,” he added.

When announcing Operation Midway Blitz, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Pritzker and other Illinois politicians of releasing “Tren de Aragua gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers on Chicago’s streets—putting American lives at risk and making Chicago a magnet for criminals.”

“President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem have a clear message: no city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return,” McLaughlin said.