Speaking in an appearance on Fox News, Mr. Ray Lopez, a Democrat who serves on the Chicago City Council as an alderman for the 15th Ward, explained that he and his constituents are firmly in favor of the president’s plan to flood the city with federal personnel, seeing doing so as quite important and the sort of thing that will help the city tremendously. He also skewered the city’s far-left leadership for its hostile stance on federal agents.
As background, President Trump has been pouring federal agents into Chicago so that ICE can more effectively crack down on illegal aliens in the city, and to combat the out-of-control crime problem for which the gang-infested Windy City is sadly known. The operation, ongoing since September, has already had a reasonable degree of success.
But while many reasonable people have seen the move as just the sort of thing that could help save the city from itself, Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have both remained implacably opposed to the president’s involvement in foisting law enforcement on their long-troubled city.
Lopez, for his part, told Fox News that his constituents are quite in favor of the president’s efforts to establish safety in their city. Thus, when asked if his constituents agree with the anti-ICE line taken by the city leadership, Lopez said, “Absolutely not. There are many people in the city of Chicago who completely support having the additional resources to keep both ICE agents and community protesters safe.”
Continuing, Lopez explained that both Pritzker and Johnson have not done what they need to, saying, “What we have seen is a complete abdication of responsibility, both by Governor Pritzker and by the mayor of the city of Chicago, who have refused up until this point to allow police just to maintain the peace for protesters and for ICE agents doing their job.”
Adding to that, he noted that what the city needs is sanity regarding these issues, particularly the matter of crime and federal law enforcement, and that a majority of Chicagoans are in support of such a move. He said, “We need to bring some sanity back to the conversation, and a majority of Chicagoans want to see that happen.”
Watch him here:
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President Trump, for his part, has insisted that both Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson ought to be arrested and jailed over their failure to keep ICE agents in their city safe from leftist radicals. He said, ‘Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!”
In a post earlier in September, he vowed to start seriously cracking down crime in the city, amongst others, writing, “The only reason crime is somewhat down in Memphis is because the FBI, and others in the Federal Government, at my direction, have been working there for 5 months – on the absolutely terrible Crime numbers. Likewise, in Chicago and Los Angeles! But the real work by us has barely begun. That happens after we make the official announcement that WE’RE COMING, and when we do that, as we did in now VERY SAFE WASHINGTON, D.C., the no crime “miracle” begins. ONLY I CAN SAVE THEM!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. ”
Featured image credit: By Fotografía oficial de la Presidencia de Colombia – https://www.flickr.com/photos/197399771@N06/54011713288/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=154990012