Illinois State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, and Illinois 12th Congressional District candidate Darren Bailey railed against the immigration policies of the federal government and sanctuary cities like Chicago during a trip to the nation’s southern border this week.
Wilhour and Bailey held a press conference Monday at the border in Eagle Pass, Texas where they discussed immigration and border security as the city of Chicago continues to grapple with an influx of immigrants, many of whom are being sent to Illinois by the state of Texas.
The site of the press conference, Shelby Park, has become the center of rising tensions between federal immigration authorities and the Texas National Guard who recently blocked U.S. Border Patrol from accessing the park. The Texas National Guard has also been installing razor wire along the border there despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the federal government to remove it.
“God bless Texas and the Texas National Guard and Gov. Abbot for having the courage and foresight to come in here and take over this park,” Wilhour said during the press conference, which was livestreamed.
Monday’s press conference also comes just a day after the U.S. Senate released a bill which includes new immigration legislation as well as additional aid for Ukraine and Israel. The $118 billion bill has already been met with resistance by some members of Congress, including Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
Bailey, who’s running against U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in the 2024 Republican primary election, said during the press conference that he is also opposed to the Senate’s proposed immigration deal.
“If I were in Congress, I would be standing up right now at this very moment letting the people know how disastrous and failed this policy is,” Bailey said. “It’s shameful that any Republican would join in any kind of talks putting this together.”
Bailey and Wilhour were introduced Monday by Texas Republican Julie Clark, who is running for Texas’s 23rd congressional district, which is where Eagle Pass is located.
“This is the largest border district in the country with 823 miles,” Clark said. “We live this on a daily basis. It’s time for us to take a stand and show you what truly is happening at the border.”
Wilhour said the current situation at the southern border is a “tragedy” for the entire country, but during the press conference, he focused primarily on the role local municipalities play in the enforcement of immigration policies, claiming that every town in the state of Illinois has become a “border town.”
“What’s happening here at the border has directly affected what is happening in the city of Chicago,” Wilhour said. “We need to demand that these cities in states like Illinois end their sanctuary state policies. If they’re gonna have their sanctuary policies, they need their funding cut.”
Wilhour also urged communities throughout Illinois to stop spending local funds on services for non-citizen immigrants which the Effingham County Board committed to doing in a resolution that it passed unanimously during a meeting in January.
“If JB Pritzker says that Illinois is a sanctuary state, and we all know that we can’t afford it, we are asking local governments in the state of Illinois to rise up and to declare that not a single penny of local taxpayer dollars is going to prop up this unsustainable policy,” Wilhour said.
Bailey also discussed the impact federal immigration policies are having on the state of Illinois, and he called for the immediate closure of the southern border as well as the completion of the expansion of the southern border wall which began under former U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The status quo is a blatant failure, a failure that’s been engineered by reckless policies and an administration that has turned its back on common sense and the rule of law,” Bailey said. “This crisis isn’t just national, it’s personal, and it’s impacting the safety and the prosperity of our communities in the 12th congressional district.”
“It’s time to show our border patrol that we will indeed give them the resources that they need to fully secure our border and keep our families safe.”