[MUSIC] >> Welcome to Capital View on WSIU.

I'm Brian Sapp.

We're two weeks away from the fall veto session, and our energy policy and transit funding are topping the agenda right now for the General Assembly.

And then immigration enforcement in Chicago continues to grab headlines.

We're going to cover these stories today and some more.

We're talking with Mawa Iqbal from WBEZ in Chicago and Brendan Moore of Lee enterprises.

Both covering stories around the state.

Marwa and Brendan, it's great to see you.

Thanks for joining us.

>> Thank you.

Good to see you, Brian.

>> Let's start with you.

You, um, Wbez's had some reporting and I've seen some of your reporting about immigration enforcement this week started the weekend.

Um, lots of Ice enforcement things happening at Broadview, the facility there.

Can you tell us kind of give us what's happened over the past few days?

>> Yeah, I'll say that this has been going on actually for the past couple of weeks now.

There's been this escalation of force in Chicago when it comes to federal agents going in and rounding up people that they are looking to detain.

Um, the most recent, I guess development was, yes, like you mentioned, this past weekend when we saw dozens of U.S.

Customs and Border Protection troops coming in.

They, you know, had tactical gear on.

They had these military style weapons, and they just kind of walked through downtown Chicago like it through the loop, through Millennium Park amongst shoppers and tourists that they were questioning people.

Uh, people were filming them.

So just like what Governor Pritzker and a lot of Chicago city leaders have said, kind of causing mayhem and havoc.

I mean, last week, we also unfortunately saw this take a more deadly turn when a federal agent shot a resident in a suburban Franklin Park neighborhood.

That that resident was a Mexican national.

And, um, details about what exactly happened are still unclear.

But, you know, we've seen a lot of videos on social media about what has been going on and, and just been talking to people who live in these neighborhoods about how tense and anxious they feel over this increased presence.

Now, what happened a couple days ago was, you know, Governor Pritzker had this press conference where he announced that, um, the Illinois National Guard received word of a memo from the Department of Homeland Security asking the now named Department of War to send in 100 military personnel to Chicago.

And this is something that Pritzker says he's not surprised is happening.

Right.

Like he kind of outlined sort of what he expected was to happen, which was, you know, the federal government would send an immigration agents to do immigration enforcement.

There would be clashes in the streets, you know, like whether that's with protesters that like you mentioned, Brian, that the Broad View detention center or just on the streets.

And then that would be pretext then for the president to send in the military to say, oh, you know, there's too much mayhem.

You know, like our officers are being attacked at these protests or like people are resisting arrest.

So now we have to we have to send in military troops.

And it's interesting because, you know, as far as, like, what can the state do to combat that?

There is a legal avenue, right?

And that's something that our state attorney general, Kwame Raoul, has definitely, definitely been underscoring that, that, you know, there he says that his office is willing and ready to just fight back against this.

But but they have to see the troops actually arrive in Chicago.

And it's important to note that there hasn't been really any communication, according to Pritzker's office between his office and the white House.

So?

So they don't really know when the military troops will be sent here.

But they are.

He and Attorney General Raul are very steadfast.

And once they are sent here, you know, we will take legal action, kind of like what we saw or what we're seeing now in Oregon.

>> Um, two things kind of pop in my head.

Um, have there been like, clear numbers of how many people have been arrested or even, you know, put, um, for being deported because of these actions?

Have you gotten many numbers or do you know of any?

>> Yeah.

So, um, some of our colleagues over at the Sun-Times and WBEZ have been monitoring that, like they've been going through court records to just, like, count how many people have been arrested.

And they found that so far, it's it's been dozens of people.

Um, I don't know the exact number, but I know it's it's definitely more than ten.

Um, and it's interesting because when you hear from Pritzker's folks, you know, and then you look at the charges that there are definitely a lot of people who have been sort of swept up, who have more serious violent charges on their record.

So, like, there are people who have been charged or even arrested for sexual assault or drug trafficking or rape or domestic violence.

Um, but then there are quite a few people who their charge or their arrest was just that they entered the country illegally or unlawfully, I should say.

Uh, once or twice before.

And that's about it.

Um, it's interesting, though, I will say that the Republicans had like the Republican lawmakers had their own press conference, um, yesterday.

And, you know, someone had asked this question of, you know, hey, like this, the arrest they've made so far in Chicago, there are quite a few people, uh, who they're not, quote unquote, violent criminals, like, like the Trump administration has been saying they want to target their people who their only crime is that they've entered the country illegally.

And, you know, you have House leader, um, or House Minority Leader Tony Mccombie saying, well, that is still a crime.

You know, and and the other lawmaker saying that, you know, we can't cherry pick and we have to make sure that we're addressing the whole suite.

So, um, it's interesting, but but yeah, so far it seems like.

>> What I want to pick up there a little bit to talk about reaction.

Like what?

What's the feeling like in the neighborhoods?

I know before this enforcement action was going to happen, there were talks of just really concern in immigrant neighborhoods.

And, uh, this this month is Hispanic Heritage Month.

And they've talked about limiting celebrations and things like that.

Is has there been a marked change in the way people are acting?

>> I think, um, you know, like I mentioned earlier, there's just a lot of fear and anxiety.

People aren't really sending their kids to school anymore.

People are afraid of going out to to work.

I will say, too, that when we were covering the US Customs and Border Protection agents coming through downtown this weekend, one of our reporters, Chip Mitchell, he was following Gregory Bovino, who is this CBP sort of chief officer from California.

And he was there, you know, in Chicago, just I guess, because he wanted to to be where all the action was, quote unquote.

Um, and, and so, so he was having sort of like a press photo op type event.

And our reporter Chip Mitchell was there.

And, you know, he asked him like, what are you guys looking for when it comes to detaining people?

And Gregory Bovino told him, you know, we're looking at specific characteristics, you know, like physical characteristics, you know, like we wouldn't want to pick up people who say, look like, say you.

Right.

And he pointed to Chip and Chip for references an older white man.

And so it's there really is this fear of being racially profiled.

Um, the press conference that Pritzker had to, you know, he invited this one immigrant rights activist or advocate that came up and spoke saying that, you know, we feel like we're in danger just because of how we look, right?

Like, it could be people who are construction workers, maybe people who run, like, shops and stuff like like we're being racially profiled.

And it's it's very just a dangerous time for us.

>> Okay.

Well, I think it's unfortunately an issue that's going to going to continue.

And we'll just have to see where, you know, the Trump administration decides to take this.

And when they feel that they're done and what their their move is next.

Um, I want to move.

We're in October and we've had a few months off of um, state not state politics but General Assembly reporting.

Um, there's been some things here and there, but we've got a couple of weeks and the fall veto session kicks off.

Brendon what?

Before we got on we were talking like we're still trying to figure out what this is going to look like.

But what what can we expect as the fall veto session gets closer and we get to it.

>> Yeah.

So lawmakers return to the Capitol in the middle of the month for their annual veto session.

Uh, they'll be here for two weeks total.

Uh, the two big issues that, uh, we need to keep an eye out for are transit reform and energy reform.

So, uh, transit, if you'll recall, uh, a lot of the Chicago area public transit agency.

So CTA, Metra and pace are facing a what's been called the fiscal cliff.

So basically, they have been using, uh, Covid 19 stimulus funds from the federal government to fund their operations.

Uh, a lot of their operations for the past few years.

That money goes away at the end of the year.

Uh, so they have to fill I believe the gap is a little over half $1 billion now.

It's lower than it was because they did come into some more money than than they than they had expected.

Uh, but they still need to fill in a gap.

Uh, this was a big issue back in the spring.

Uh, lawmakers, uh, put together a package that got a vote in the Senate.

Uh, but but did not get called in the House.

Uh, really?

The big question is how is it going to be funded?

So, uh, there's been a lot of focus on the Chicago area.

Uh, but, uh, downstate transit agencies need money as well.

So, uh, there would have to be a funding mechanism for, for those agencies.

Uh, you know, there was a big controversy about, uh, one of the big funding mechanisms, which would have been a delivery tax, $1.50 delivery tax on, um, let's say you get Uber Eats or you get a package from Amazon.

Uh, that would, uh, be tacked on to all of those, uh, you know, deliveries which have become a lot more common, uh, as, uh, our economy shifts, uh, that was not well received by by, uh, a lot of groups.

It was not very, very well.

Uh, so, uh, it'll be interesting to see how, uh, legislators address how to fund, uh, transit.

Uh, you know, they're probably going to raise some kind of tax, but, uh, how do you do it in a way that is politically palatable?

Um, the other issue is energy.

So this also got brought up in the spring.

It was negotiated.

But, you know, a lot of the negotiators basically said they ran out of time.

Uh, there were too many unresolved issues.

So basically at at play here is, uh, energy prices are skyrocketing and and the supply of energy is is going down as a lot of these coal and natural gas plants go offline, and renewable energy sources like wind and solar haven't kept up, uh, with, with uh, with the demand.

And you throw into that, uh, the, uh, growing demand from data centers, uh, for energy.

They use a lot of electricity, a lot of water.

Uh, you know, this a lot a lot of this, uh, comes with the rise in artificial intelligence, uh, that they need these data centers to power, uh, to power AI.

And so, uh, that is that has become a kind of a flashpoint negotiations.

Uh, a lot of groups, particularly, uh, you know, clean energy advocates and environmental groups want, uh, the owners of these data centers to supply their own energy, uh, instead of, uh, you know, uh, getting it from the grid and, you know, which again takes away supply from everybody else and raises prices.

Um, but, uh, business groups are concerned that that would lead Illinois to losing, uh, data center, uh, data centers to surrounding states.

Uh, you know, and they do supply they do create jobs, construction jobs, and they, uh, you know, provide communities a lot in property taxes and income taxes.

So, you know, there are economic benefits to having these centers in Illinois.

So, uh, those would be the two big issues.

One other one I'll throw out very quick.

Uh, the Chicago Bears are seeking, uh, legislation, uh, that would help them build their stadium in Arlington Heights.

Basically, it would allow for them to, uh, uh, not pay property taxes on their website or on their website, on their, on their, on their stadium site for a period of 30 years and instead negotiate with local taxing bodies a payment in lieu of taxes, which they say would give them certainty on what they're going to pay in in taxes on that site.

Uh, a lot of people would say, though, that they're looking to get, uh, property tax break.

Uh, and the governor and state legislators have have basically thrown cold water on, on the prospect.

Um, but it'll be interesting to see kind of what the bears, uh, if they try to take a different tack during veto session, if they, um, you know, try to negotiate something.

Uh, but, uh, that is something perhaps, uh, to, to keep an eye on, uh, this month, um, you know, they released new renderings of the stadium earlier this week, so, uh, maybe that jumpstarts things, but, uh, but that that might be another thing to to to look out for in veto session.

>> I know one thing I'll also throw out, too.

Um, I know Brandon covered, like the big stuff that that will will definitely probably see.

I'm just interested to see, you know, with all of this, like immigration enforcement happening in Chicago, we do have a lot of, um, like Latino, Hispanic lawmakers who are from the Chicagoland area who have been sort of on the ground like, you know, at Know your Rights sessions with residents or, um, I mean, you literally have Senator Karina Villa, who's also the chair of the Latino Caucus, who like, there's social media video of her confronting Ice agents, like, on the streets and like, telling them to, like, get out.

So so I would be very curious to see if, like any of those lawmakers like, introduce legislation addressing like, Ice agents.

Maybe it's something like, you know, unmasking legislation.

So basically essentially, which I know like other jurisdictions have done this, but it's essentially like making sure that if you're a federal agent that you wear a badge that identifies who you are and that your face isn't covered, um, and that you're not an unmarked vehicle, um, but but, you know, like, I was mentioning earlier, the House Republicans, they've they are obviously on the sort of opposite side of this issue.

And we have one, uh, state representative, C.D.

Davidsmeyer, who introduced legislation to roll back some of the protections that um, uh, local law enforcement have from cooperating with federal law enforcement on immigration enforcement.

So it's it'll be interesting, I think, just to monitor that, um, if it even comes up.

So I'll be keeping my eye on that.

But but definitely the the things that Brennan mentioned will will be, I think front and center.

>> And I'll add very quickly to, uh, State Representative Barbara Hernandez, uh, did file legislation back in, I believe, July.

Uh, that would basically require Ice agents to, to, um, to show their faces and, you know, show their show their badge.

And it would apply to all law enforcement in the state.

Uh, so it'd be interesting to see if that gets a hearing.

I think there's some questions.

If, if, if Illinois could do that until federal agents what they can and can't do.

But, uh, yes, to Mawa's point, uh, I think at the very least, it'll be a topic for discussion, uh, in the capital in the coming weeks.

>> We we have that.

And then too, I don't think we're going to cover much here, but with the federal government shut down, I know earlier in the year, Governor Pritzker had talked about worries about the impact that might have rolling downhill and the one big beautiful bill.

So it it sounds like there's still a lot that could shake out in the next few weeks.

I wanted to start moving a little bit and maybe talk about some politics and some politicking.

Not that that's not been involved, but, um, last week, uh, Darren Bailey officially threw his hat in the ring and made his announcement across the state last week that he is running for governor.

Um, Brendan, how does this add to the Republican slate of candidates.

>> Yeah.

So Darren Bailey's the third major Republican candidate to get in the race.

The others are DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick and Ted Dabrowski, who is the former president of conservative uh, group Wire Points.

Uh, so Bailey starts the frontrunner.

I mean, he he is the most well-known candidate in the field.

He ran against Governor Pritzker four years ago.

Uh, he ran against Congressman Mike Bost unsuccessfully in the Republican primary in 2024.

He's a well-known commodity in Republican politics across the state.

Um, he really rose up, uh, during the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic.

Uh, he was, um, you know, basically the face of the opposition to, uh, Governor Pritzker's, uh, mask mandates and the closure of businesses and schools.

Uh, and he kind of became a folk hero of sorts on the right.

Um, and, uh, and he easily won, uh, the Republican primary in 2022, uh, and became the nominee.

But he lost to Governor Pritzker.

Uh, but, uh, but again, he's got the most name recognition out of all the candidates.

Uh, but I think, uh, the question is going to be, can he, uh, can he convince Republican primary voters, uh, that that he should be given a second chance to, to to go against Pritzker?

Uh, he did particularly poorly in the Chicago suburbs.

He's going to have to improve his performance there significantly if he wants to be competitive.

Um, you know, he he made an olive branch, uh, to that, uh, last week.

Uh, his running mate is Aaron Del Mar, who is the Cook County Republican Party chairman.

Um, and, uh, if you look at their logo, their campaign logo, last time it had a barn And this time it still has a barn, but it also includes a silhouette of the Chicago skyline.

So that gives you any indication.

Uh, I don't know if he's going to moderate his positions, per se, but there's at least going to be more of a focus on on winning voters in the northeast corner of the state, where two thirds of the state's residents live.

Um, that being said, he's going to have competition.

So, uh, particularly from Dabrowski.

So people don't probably know Ted Dabrowski too much yet, but, uh, he's been, uh, pretty well known guy in conservative circles in the state.

Uh, his, his company, Wire Points, uh, is basically a research, uh, arm for, uh, for conservatives, uh, giving, uh, research and data from a conservative viewpoint.

Uh, he's kind of a wonkier guy.

Uh, and most importantly, uh, he's shown an ability to raise some money.

So, uh, he's raised a bit over $1 million from from a handful of of large donors.

Uh, most notably, he got a quarter million dollar contribution last week from from Richard Uihlein, who is a very prominent conservative megadonor.

He owns the the the shipping company, uh, the box company Uline.

Uh and and Uline.

He was with Bailey last time.

So he gave Bailey's campaign directly more than $12 million.

He gave a super PAC dedicated to defeating Pritzker more than $40 million.

So the fact that he is with Dabrowski is significant.

Um, the quarter million dollars is just a down payment.

There will be more to come.

So Dabrowski will have money to to increase his name recognition, to get on television, to do the things you have to do to communicate with voters.

And so I do think that Republican primary voters will be given a real, uh, a real contest.

They will get to know these candidates.

Um, Again, Bailey is the favorite.

But, uh, there is going to be an effort to, uh, among some Republicans at least.

Uh, and we saw even earlier this week that, uh, former state Representative Jeanne Ives, who was with who ran against Governor Rauner in the primary in 28, 2018, came close to beating him.

Uh, she was with Bailey in 22.

She's with Dabrowski now.

So I think there is an effort in some Republican circles to go in a different direction, uh, to say we tried that, uh, but this time we should we should try something new against Governor Pritzker.

Um, but it remains to be seen if if that they will convince the Republican base that, uh, likes Darren Bailey.

Uh, he had no problems winning in 22.

And, uh, you know, he is certainly, uh, he's certainly the favorite now, but, uh, but it will be it'll be it'll be a competition, though.

>> I'd be interested to see who the Illinois Republican Party endorses.

Um, you know, it's important to note that Darren Bailey didn't even show up to the Republican day at the state fair.

And it's because he has such a like a disdain for the what he calls the direction that the Illinois Republican Party is going in.

And I did talk to Chairwoman Kathy Salvi just kind of about this race and how, you know, there's all these different candidates that are throwing their hats in the ring.

And she she was like, you know, whoever the voters pick in the primary, that's who we'll put our support behind.

And she just kind of left it at that.

But, um, you know, Bailey has not been shy about his sort of disdain for, like, the schism and sort of the falling apart that he says the Republican Party is going through.

>> Which I find kind of interesting.

Analyzing last week, he made his start here in Carterville.

And so I went to that event and, um, he was he they really leaned into bringing in Aaron Del Mar and that he brought in this, this Chicago, this branching out, so I wonder how, I don't know, I'm new to the state still still learning the politics, but I'm curious that he leaned into Aaron Del Mar a little bit.

Did that I don't know him particularly.

How how has he received in Chicago?

>> You know, it's it's funny because like, like what Brennan said, you know, four years ago, he did quite bad in the Chicagoland area.

I mean, Pritzker beat him by more than double digit points.

Um, it doesn't seem like, you know, people in Chicago really know him yet, so I'd be curious.

Yeah, to to see, like, how bringing in Aaron Del Mar will will will affect that if it even, uh, pushes the needle in that regard.

>> Yeah.

Brian, if I can add very quickly.

>> I, I it was interesting listening to to Bailey and Del Mar talk about how they're going to reach out to voters in the suburbs.

It seemed very much like, uh, some of the actions are more performative than, than, than Then substance.

So, yes, you pick a lieutenant gubernatorial candidate from the Chicago suburbs.

Uh, Bailey, also, he told my colleague in Bloomington that they're going to try to engage Republicans in the suburbs, you know, precinct committee people trying to get like, the party activists, uh, I guess activated, uh, which is all important.

But at the end of the day, if you want to compete in the Chicago suburbs, you know, you have to tailor a message that that people in the suburbs are willing to hear.

And I think he's trying to, in a way, by focusing on affordability, cost of living, uh, those are big issues.

But at the same time, uh, you know, that that's kind of difficult when, uh, you support Republican administration in Washington, uh, that that has, you know, implemented tariffs and things that, that I think Democrats will argue have made things more expensive.

Uh, and at the same time, you know, those big social issues don't go away.

So, you know, it's very hard to win a statewide race in Illinois if you're anti-abortion rights and anti uh, anti gun control.

Sure.

And so I think that those are going to be challenges for him.

>> Well we've got a few months for it to all shake out and see if they as they refine their messages and see who they can pull in.

Well that's it for this week's edition of Capitol View.

Thanks for joining us.

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