Statement of JB Pritzker Governor, State of Illinois before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives June 12, 2025 Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Lynch, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the critically important topic of immigration. Governors, including those joining me today, have had to shoulder the consequences of a broken immigration system for years. I am proud of how the Great State of Illinois has responded to this challenge—creating solutions that promote public safety, treat people with dignity, support our economy, and respect the rule of law. Congress, however, must act. I hope our conversation today will be a productive step towards much needed bipartisan reforms. The crisis at the southern border in recent years has been devastating; the response from some of our political leaders even more so. As individuals fleeing poverty, violence, and persecution arrived at our border, our nation’s leaders were confronted with a choice: would we do everything possible to make the promise of America the practice of America? Some border state governors and mayors abandoned our nation’s highest ideals—instead choosing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to treat people as pawns, busing them to states like ours in a dehumanizing attempt to leverage the crisis for political gain. The State of Illinois chose a different path. With people’s lives at stake—children, pregnant women, and the elderly who were sent to our state in the dead of night, dropped outside far from our designated intake and welcome centers, in freezing temperatures—and a federal government that was unwilling to address the national crisis in any meaningful way, we knew we could not simply ignore the suffering right in front of us. Those who were bused to Illinois were generally presented to federal law enforcement before their arrival to our state. Federal immigration laws allowed them to be released into the community as they awaited processing, but did not allow them to legally work or coordinate a place for them to stay—leaving individuals with few options in the interim. So, Illinois filled in the gaps where federal immigration policy failed, ensuring that people were not starving on our streets as they were processed through our broken immigration system, sought asylum, applied for other forms of immigration relief, or went through removal proceedings. We understand the responsibility we bear to treat people with dignity, respect, and fairness. Within two weeks of the first buses arriving in Illinois in August 2022, we issued a disaster proclamation to immediately unlock resources to help the City of Chicago, Cook County, and other jurisdictions handle the immigrants being sent to our state. As more individuals were involuntarily sent to Illinois—ultimately totaling over 50,000 people—we used a data-driven ↗

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Issue	Pritzker	Bailey
	Unknown	Supports stricter penalties
	Supports easing rules	Unknown
	Opposes restrictions	Supports restrictions
Fentanyl & drug enforcement	Unknown	Unknown
	Opposes more drilling	Unknown
	Unknown	Supports vouchers/ESAs
	Unknown	Supports parent authority
	Unknown	Supports ID requirement
	Opposes mail-vote limits	Unknown
	Allow with consent	Unknown
	Opposes restriction	Unknown
	Supports LGBT causes	Unknown
	Opposes tax cuts	Unknown
	Supports larger gov role	Unknown
	Supports new gun limits	Unknown
	Opposes strict enforcement	Supports strict enforcement
	Opposes withholding funds	Unknown
Regulation & permitting (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Supports EV mandates	Unknown
Social Security & Medicare (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Unknown	Supports spending cuts
	Unknown	Opposes legalization
DEI programs (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Supports forgiveness	Unknown
Free speech & tech censorship (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Unknown	Supports term limits
Congressional stock trading (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
Israel (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
Ukraine aid (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
China & trade (federal)	Unknown	Unknown

Issue	Pritzker	Bailey
	Unknown	Supports stricter penalties
	Supports easing rules	Unknown
	Opposes restrictions	Supports restrictions
Fentanyl & drug enforcement	Unknown	Unknown
	Opposes more drilling	Unknown
	Unknown	Supports vouchers/ESAs
	Unknown	Supports parent authority
	Unknown	Supports ID requirement
	Opposes mail-vote limits	Unknown
	Allow with consent	Unknown
	Opposes restriction	Unknown
	Supports LGBT causes	Unknown
	Opposes tax cuts	Unknown
	Supports larger gov role	Unknown
	Supports new gun limits	Unknown
	Opposes strict enforcement	Supports strict enforcement
	Opposes withholding funds	Unknown
Regulation & permitting (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Supports EV mandates	Unknown
Social Security & Medicare (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Unknown	Supports spending cuts
	Unknown	Opposes legalization
DEI programs (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Supports forgiveness	Unknown
Free speech & tech censorship (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
	Unknown	Supports term limits
Congressional stock trading (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
Israel (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
Ukraine aid (federal)	Unknown	Unknown
China & trade (federal)	Unknown	Unknown

2026 Illinois governor's race

Where they stand

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2026 Illinois governor's race

Where they stand

More races