President Trump's head of homeland security is rejecting a request from Governor J.B. Pritzker to pause ICE enforcement activity in Illinois over the Halloween weekend.
The governor told reporters in Springfield on Thursday that he sent a letter to DHS secretary Kristi Noem asking that agents stand down while children are out trick-or-treating.
He described the abrupt cancellation of a Halloween costume parade in Chicago's Old Irving Park neighborhood last weekend when ICE agents rolled in: "Witnesses say the agents swept in donning automatic weapons, pushed elderly people to the ground and blasted the area with tear gas."
"No child in America should have to go trick-or-treating in fear that they might be confronted with armed federal agents and have to inhale tear gas," said the prominent Democrat and Trump Administration critic. "Give the children and families of Illinois a break."
Less than two hours after the Governor made the request, Noem appeared with leaders in northwest Indiana to talk about ICE and Customs and Border Protection efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants with commercial driver's licenses ... and she flatly rejected the Governor's request.
"We're absolutely not willing to put on pause any of the work that we're doing to keep communities safe," Noem told reporters during an appearance with that state's Republican governor Mike Braun and others. "The fact that Governor Pritzker is asking for that is ... shameful."