Pritzker says ICE should be ‘replaced’ for racial profiling, is ‘flattered’ by presidential buzz
CHICAGO - Gov. JB Pritzker said in a recent interview that ICE should be "wiped away and replaced" and accused federal immigration agents of racial profiling during the Trump administration’s enforcement operations.
The governor’s comments, made in an interview with Vox published over the weekend, appear to represent a slightly different take on a previous assertion he made to "abolish Trump’s ICE" in the wake of the fatal shooting of a second person in Minnesota last month.
Interviewer Astead Herndon, a suburban Chicago native, covered a wide range of topics with Pritzker, who is seeking a third term as governor in this year’s election.
What they're saying:
Herndon asked Pritzker about the different tactics of ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents in Trump’s second term.
"ICE and CBP today under Donald Trump are stopping U.S. citizens who are Black and brown and demanding to see citizenship papers," Pritzker said. "Now, I don’t know about you, I don’t get asked for citizenship papers. I don’t have any on me. But they’re doing it, and they’re doing it to people who are not undocumented. They’re doing it to people who are here legally, people who have lived here maybe generations, U.S. citizens."
Then, Pritzker was asked if ICE should be abolished, a stance many Democrats have voiced in the wake of the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.
"What Donald Trump is doing with it, yeah, what he’s doing with it should absolutely be abolished, and it’s gotta be replaced," Pritzker said. "It’s just gotta be wiped away and replaced. Donald Trump has turned them into a secret police, and I do not believe that we want secret police on the streets of our cities and of our country."
On the surface, Pritzker’s comments don’t appear to go as far as other Democrats and progressives who have argued for the dismantling of ICE. Even his own lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, has echoed calls for ICE to be abolished in her primary campaign to be the next U.S. senator from Illinois.
Pritzker did voice support for congressional Democrats in their effort to oppose funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP, to pressure Republicans to accept changes to how immigration agents conduct their operations. He said shutting down DHS was "the right thing to do."
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks during a news conference to announce French quantum computing company Pasqal will establish their American headquarters in Chicago, on October 9, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by OCTAVIO JONES / AFP) (Photo b
Israel’s war in Gaza
Pritzker was also asked if he believed that Israel had committed genocide during its war in Gaza, which killed more than 68,000 Palestinians over two years, according to the World Health Organization.
"Look, atrocities have been committed. There’s no doubt about it," Pritzker said. "When innocent people are targeted, and when no care is given in some of these attacks to the idea that you might lose a thousand innocent lives in order to take out one guilty person, that’s where I think you lose the world and people like me who believe in human rights."
Pritzker added that he believed in a two-state solution and criticized the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has led the country during the war and subsequent fragile ceasefire.
"Now we’ve got to have a pretty major process first of humanitarian aid to support people who are living in Gaza now, because it’s been absolutely devastated," Pritzker said. "And Israel should be very much a part of supporting that."
The governor, who is Jewish, was also asked about whether he saw rising antisemitism in the Democratic Party. Pritzker said he’s seen "a lot" of antisemitism over the past few years.
"Much of it, as you know, emanated from the right," he said. "Yeah, there are people on the left who are antisemites. I think that there are a lot of people who today conflate their views about Israel with their views about Jews. It’s very disturbing to me the antisemitism, which has been around, of course, forever, and needs to stop."
On his weight loss
Herndon also asked Pritzker about his apparent weight loss and whether it was tied to his preparing for a possible presidential run in 2028.
"I’ve been challenged with my weight for most of my life, honestly, and I have succeeded and failed," Pritzker said. "Like a lot of people, you lose weight, you gain weight over the course of your life."
But the governor added, "I realize that other people want to make this about something that it’s not."
He also declined to answer whether he was using any GLP-1 drugs, calling such a question "hyper-personal."
Pritzker has repeatedly deflected questions about whether he will run for president in 2028, even though he’s viewed as a top potential contender. He’s said he’s focused on winning a third term as governor, something that hasn’t happened in Illinois in decades.
Still, Pritzker said he was "flattered" by all the talk of him running for president.
Las Vegas gambling winnings
Herndon also asked Pritzker about winning $1.4 million from gambling in Las Vegas last year.
News of the winnings made headlines for the Hyatt hotel heir, whose personal wealth is estimated to be $3.9 billion, according to Forbes.
"Very lucky is the answer, and you know they’re not in business to give you money, so if you can win anything and walk away, you’ve done well," Pritzker said.