Gov. JB Pritzker’s chief of staff took to social media last week to call out federal agents for taking a break from their militarized immigration enforcement operation in the Chicago area to play tourist and pose for group photos in front of the iconic Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park.
“These jerks went to the Bean this morning where they took a picture where instead of saying ‘cheese’ they said ‘Little Village’ — the name of the community they terrorized over the weekend,” Pritzker chief of staff Anne Caprara wrote, sharing a link to a Block Club Chicago story documenting the photo op.
“The only good thing is we will be handing over this picture to the Illinois Accountability Commission,” Caprara wrote, referring to the body Pritzker formed late last month in order to “create an official public record” of the “impropriety, brutality and harassment perpetrated” by federal agents participating in the monthslong crackdown known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”
But more than three weeks after Pritzker drew national attention for creating the commission through an executive order, there is no apparent way for members of the public who have experienced or witnessed excessive force or other misconduct by federal immigration agents to report those allegations directly to the commission.
“I want to encourage all Illinoisans who have witnessed or experienced concerning conduct by federal agents to stay tuned at www.ilac.illinois.gov … for details in the days and weeks ahead,” Pritzker said at the Oct. 23 news conference where he announced the commission. “Donald Trump is counting on your silence. We are counting on your courage.”
Even as the controversial head of the federal operation, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, has left Chicago in recent days, the commission’s website remains bare bones, with a phone number to contact an outside organization added Friday only after an inquiry from the Tribune. As of Friday, the site still did not provide an email address or other digital method for contacting the commission to share the type of eyewitness cellphone videos the governor has repeatedly asked the public to record and hand over since the chaotic, violent crackdown began in early September.
In response to questions the Tribune initially raised Nov. 10, the governor’s office in an emailed statement this past Friday referred the public to contact an advocacy group that has been tracking the federal enforcement actions, stating “members of the public who wish to share information can contact the (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights) Family Support Network & Hotline at 1‑855‑HELP‑MY‑FAMILY (1‑855‑435‑7693), listed on the commission’s website.”
Before the Tribune contacted the governor’s office about the issue, users of the state commission website had to click a link to a separate site to find the phone number. That number was added to the commission’s website Friday afternoon.
“The commission will provide updates to the public if there are other avenues to share information,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jillian Kaehler said in the emailed statement.
On the commission’s website, a section titled “Learn More” includes links to the executive order Pritzker signed and a news release announcing the commission, along with a separate news release detailing Pritzker’s request that federal authorities pause their operation over Halloween weekend, which the Trump administration sharply criticized, then disregarded.
There’s also a link to the Illinois Immigration Information hub, which provides resources to inform residents of their rights and direct them to legal help. But there’s no information on any of the commission’s plans to “collect testimony, hold hearings, and gather information and firsthand accounts from individuals, community members, subject matter, experts, local officials, journalists, faith leaders and organizations,” as Pritzker promised at his October news conference. “The mechanisms for facilitating this information gathering will be announced soon,” the website says.
The commission, which operates under the auspices of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, is charged with sending Pritzker an initial report on its findings and recommendations by Jan. 31. The governor has said the commission is necessary because neither the Trump administration nor the Republican-controlled Congress is holding immigration enforcement officers accountable for misconduct during the operation, in which one federal judge in Chicago has said agents’ “use of force shocks the conscience.”
Pritzker has yet to fill three seats on the nine-member commission. Appointments to fill the vacancies are “expected in the coming weeks,” Kaehler said.
In the meantime, the commission, headed by former U.S. District Judge Rubén Castillo, has begun meeting. In addition, the Department of Human Rights has hired the commission’s executive director and top attorneys, and the department has “developed the organizational structure for onboarding additional support staff,” Kaehler said.
The commission’s executive director is Hina Mahmood, a former deputy chief of staff at the state Department of Human Services who most recently was director of Illinois initiatives at the JB & MK Pritzker Family Foundation, the philanthropic organization the billionaire governor and his wife founded in the early 2000s. In her role with the commission, Mahmood is working on an $84.62-per-hour contract with the state, according to the Illinois comptroller’s office.
“Commission members are beginning initial outreach efforts, exploring community partnerships and collaborations, and conducting a landscape analysis of information already in the public domain to examine the roles and impact of related and ongoing litigation,” Kaehler said.
Numerous lawsuits challenging various aspects of Operation Midway Blitz have been filed against the Trump administration in federal court in Chicago.
In recent days, a federal judge said he would order the release on bond of hundreds of immigrants who’ve been arrested during raids across the Chicago area; outside attorneys paid a court-ordered visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in west suburban Broadview over concerns about the conditions for arrestees held there; and a judge who has already issued temporary orders restricting the use of force by immigration agents said she would hold a hearing in the spring on whether to issue a permanent injunction.
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November 17, 2025 at 05:28AM
