Pritzker discusses immigration crackdown with Pope Leo XIV in Rome

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker met with Pope Leo XIV in Rome on Wednesday, with the two discussing the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration raids and the governor formally inviting the Chicago-born pontiff back for a visit to his hometown.

The governor’s office said that Pritzker and his wife, first lady MK Pritzker, met with the pope for 40 minutes, where they offered “well-wishes and deep gratitude… for his public service and for his positive representation of Chicago, Illinois, and the United States.” Pritzker’s chief of staff, Anne Caprara, also was present for the meeting.

The governor wrote on social media afterward that it was “an honor” to meet “a son of Illinois” and “to express the pride and reverence of the people of this great state.”

“Pope Leo XIV’s message of hope, compassion, unity and peace resonates with Illinoisans of all faiths and traditions,” said Pritzker, who is Jewish.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich helped arrange the private audience, according to the governor’s office.

Immigrant advocacy

Pritzker, a Democrat, diverges from the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church with his support for abortion rights and same sex marriage, among other topics. But the governor and pope have found common cause in their advocacy for the rights of immigrants.

Both have been outspoken critics of the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown in the United States. The Chicago region specifically was the target of “Operation Midway Blitz,” an enforcement campaign that wrapped up a week ago. As of last month, about 3,300 people were arrested locally, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

While DHS repeatedly claimed that they were targeting “the worst of the worst,” nearly all the people swept up in the raids had no criminal record or presented a “high public safety risk,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

The campaign resulted in violence, with federal agents and protestors clashing outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in suburban Broadview. And masked federal agents repeatedly deployed tear gas and other chemical agents to disperse protests that arose during operations in Chicago neighborhoods.

Immigrants detained in the Broadview facility described its squalid, overcrowded cells and its filthy, overflowing toilets. A federal judge concluded that the conditions were “unnecessarily cruel” and that the facility had “become a prison.”

At the pope’s urging, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement last week condemning the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and calling for “an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence” against immigrants.

Leo, asked about the bishops’ statement by reporters in Rome on Tuesday, said he was troubled by the “extremely disrespectful” way migrants have been treated.

“We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have,” the pope said. “If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts. There’s a system of justice.”

Pope ‘wanted to hear my views’

Pritzker told NBC 5 Chicago that Leo “wanted to hear my views and asked a few questions about what the situation is on the ground right now,” adding that the pontiff was “pleased” to hear that ICE operations were seemingly winding down in the region.

In addition to a discussion of immigration, Pritzker brought “good tidings from Chicago” — and a formal invitation for the pontiff, born in the city and raised in suburban Dolton, to visit. The last time a pope visited Chicago was 1979, when Pope John Paul II held a three-hour Mass for worshipers in Grant Park.

The Pritzkers presented Leo with a series of gifts, including art from an incarcerated woman at Logan Correctional Center, the book “Lincoln: The Life and Legacy that Defined a Nation” by Ian Hunt, a copy of MK Pritzker’s book on the history of the Illinois Governor’s Mansion, and a pack of Chicago-based Burning Bush Brewery’s Da Pope American Mild Ale.

“We’ll put that in the fridge,” the pope said, according to video from Catholic television network EWTN.

Pritzker is not the first Illinois elected official to receive an audience with Leo. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias met the pontiff in Rome last month, presenting him with a White Sox-themed Illinois specialty license plate. And Chicago Ald. Bill Conway made the pilgrimage in August.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.