CHICAGO — After urging Illinoisans last month to record concerning actions by federal agents, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order Thursday creating a commission to review documentation submitted by the public.
“The federal government has chosen to treat the people of this country as an adversary,” Pritzker said of the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting the Chicago area. “We will not meet intimidation with fear. We will meet it with truth.”
The newly formed Illinois Accountability Commission has been charged by Pritzker to create a public record of abuses, document the impact of those abuses on families and communities, and recommend actions for justice and reducing future harm.
The commission will investigate past actions by federal officials, according to its chair, U.S. District Judge Rubén Castillo, including the fatal shooting of unarmed father and Mexican immigrant Silverio Villegas González by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after dropping off his two young sons at school and daycare in the Chicago area.
“There are serious questions about that shooting and that killing,” Castillo said of Villegas González, adding the commission would “certainly” investigate further.
Castillo also indicated the commission would also look into the Oct. 4 shooting of 30-year-old Marimar Martinez by a Border Patrol agent in Brighton Park.
Castillo added that the commission would seek to determine whether agents in those cases had faced any disciplinary action, referencing officials’ Oct. 9 statement to U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis that no agents had been disciplined for violating internal use-of-force policies.
Holding up a framed copy of the Oct. 15 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times as a “trial exhibit,” Castillo likened the commission to a lighthouse, saying it would “shed light on darkness” and act as a beacon for truth.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton echoed the analogy and invoked the spirit of investigative journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who famously called on the light of truth to right wrongs in the 1890s and early 1900s.
“This is not law enforcement. This is not public safety. This is state-sanctioned cruelty without accountability, and the state of Illinois will not let this continue in darkness,” Stratton said.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or ICIRR, has mobilized volunteer rapid response teams to document and alert Illinois communities about ICE activity. ICIRR Executive Director Lawrence Benito said the organization received over 8,000 calls in October alone.
Benito identified Chicago’s southwest and northwest sides, Waukegan, Elgin, Cicero, Bolingbrook and Joliet as hotspots for those calls.
“It is increasingly clear that (President Donald) Trump and his cronies are turning the federal government into a weapon against our people,” Benito said. “And together, we are fighting back.”
Also joining Pritzker on stage was Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center, a network of attorneys providing pro bono legal resources to immigrants in the U.S.
McCarthy said she worked with local communities in Chile in the 1980s, helping safeguard the rights of individuals under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. She likened the commission’s role to that of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, which issued a report documenting human rights violations.
The commission formed by the executive order is tasked with providing an initial public report on its findings and recommendations to the governor no later than Jan. 31.
“The executive order will protect the rule of law,” McCarthy said. “I believe that the commission will become an invaluable resource in America's quest for justice and durable human rights protections.”
Pritzker told Illinoisans to “stay tuned” on the commission’s website for information on how to submit documentation. He encouraged people to keep taking videos, calling it “a protest of itself” to record federal agents acting unlawfully.
The commission will not have subpoena power, Pritzker clarified, but said it will invite people to provide testimony. Castillo added that the commission would work with its attorneys to protect the private identity of civilians involved in incidents.
Before signing the order, the governor reflected on a quote by civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., who stated that the moral arc of history is long, but bends toward justice.
“It doesn’t feel in this moment like we’re bending toward justice,” Pritzker said. “Indeed, I guess I would offer humbly and amendment to say, it only bends toward justice if we bend it that way.”
Contact the commission at https://ilac.illinois.gov
Maggie Dougherty is a freelance reporter covering the Chicago area.
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