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Archive for the ‘Immigration’ Category

Despite widespread local opposition, “North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors,” rallies members to support Pritzker’s BUILD Plan

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Ethics, Fools and their money, Immigration, Land Disconnection, Land Use, OP/Ed, Organizations, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Springfield, Unions, Zoning Board on April 22, 2026| 3 Comments »

More than two months ago we posted, “Pritzker to propose statewide zoning laws to spur homebuilding, limit local control.” Shortly thereafter, local community leaders almost universally voiced their opposition to Pritzker’s plan to diminish local control and property values via his “BUILD,” plans.

Needless to say, we were dumbfounded when an email was forwarded to us with the subject line, “Call For Action: Support the BUILD Plan to Increase Inventory.” That message was sent by, “North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors (NSBAR).” Since most recognize the reputation (many) realtors have, suffice it to say consider the source as we continue…

The NSBAR message begins with, “Please contact your legislator and tell them to support the BUILD Plan to increase housing inventory and ease housing costs for Illinois families.” State Rep. Martin McLaughlin has not been shy in voicing his opposition to Pritzker’s land grab plans stating, “It’s just a bad idea.”

The NSBAR pitch states the BUILD plan will, “Eliminate local housing bans.” One does not need to read further, but those wishing to can do so here.

All we can advise is when buying or selling a home, choose your representative and attorney wisely.

Related: “Village of Barrington President shares perspectives on Pritzker’s BUILD plans,” “(Ignoring public opinion) Pritzker says of BUILD Plan for homes would not cost taxpayers,” “Gov. JB Pritzker’s ambitious housing plan for Illinois: More four-flats, looser rules,” “Pritzker to propose statewide zoning laws to spur homebuilding, limit local control,” “McLaughlin’s press conference video recording regarding Pritzker’s proposed municipal zoning powers grab posted,” “‘It’s just a bad idea’: Suburban officials oppose Pritzker’s plan to reduce local control over residential It’s just zoning”

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Wisconsin sheriff sues Skokie woman and Cook County politician who claimed she was detained by ICE

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Cook, County, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Immigration, Politics, Property Taxes on April 11, 2026| 2 Comments »

Summer Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi, right, said she was detained by federal immigration officials upon her arrival at O’Hare International Airport. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials and local officials in Wisconsin, where Naqvi said she was held in custody, are disputing her account. Sister Sarah Afzal is at left. (Sarah Afzal)

By Caroline Kubzansky, Talia Soglin and Alice Yin | Chicago Tribune

A Wisconsin sheriff announced a defamation lawsuit Friday against a Cook County politician and a Skokie woman who recently claimed that federal immigration officials detained her at three locations for nearly 48 hours, including a jail in Dodge County, Wisconsin.

Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt is suing in his individual capacity, alleging damage to his reputation as a result of Summer Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi’s harrowing story that he sought to debunk during a one-hour news conference in the afternoon. He alleged that Naqvi, who was born in Evanston, and Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, a family friend of hers, spread “unverified, uncorroborated and misleading” claims, but said he could not yet identify any Wisconsin laws they broke.

“At no point was Sundas Naqvi in the custody of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office,” Schmidt said. “This is a serious accusation, and when it is not true, it does real damage. It damages the trust between law enforcement and the community. It unfairly puts a target on the backs of officers.”

Neither Naqvi or her sister Sarah Afzal immediately responded to requests for comment on Friday. It was not clear if Naqvi had an attorney. An attorney from a firm representing her on a separate case declined to comment and said he is not representing her in the defamation case.

A woman talks to Sarah Afzal, of Rogers Park, the sister of Sundas Naqvi, near the lectern while Kevin Morrison, a Cook County commissioner, speaks during a press conference near the ICE facility in Broadview Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)

In a text message to the Tribune, Morrison said, “It is my understanding that a lawsuit has been filed, I haven not seen it. And if a suit has in fact been filed, I cannot comment on pending litigation.”

At the news conference in Juneau, Wisconsin, the sheriff laid out a timeline and played a slideshow of surveillance footage, hotel records and text message screenshots that he said proves Naqvi was never held at the Dodge County jail.

Naqvi’s story of disembarking from a flight at O’Hare International Airport on March 5 and allegedly being held by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the airport for 30 hours — despite being a U.S. citizen — made international headlines. Her alleged ordeal, according to Morrison and Afzal, included being moved to a notorious immigration processing center in west suburban Broadview and then the Dodge County detention center, before she was released March 7 and hitchhiked to a nearby Holiday Inn.

But Schmidt said Friday his office had no record of Naqvi getting booked into the facility. His lawsuit alleges Naqvi and Morrison’s claims about her alleged detention in the Dodge County jail “were and are false.” His lawsuit seeks damages of more than $1 million against each defendant.

Schmidt produced records from a Rosemont Hampton Inn & Suites that he said show Naqvi checking in about 1:17 p.m. on March 5, plus text messages between an unnamed witness and Naqvi the next day discussing ordering food and using the witness’ credit card to pay a “spa lady.”

“There is no spa at Broadview in Chicago, Illinois,” Schmidt said, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center. “There is no spa lady in our jail here in Dodge County.”

Story continues here.

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Obama Presidential Center releases information for ticket sales

Posted in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Ethics, Immigration, Politics, Taxes, The Chicago Way on April 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

 

You’ll soon be able to purchase tickets to visit the museum at the Obama Presidential Center.

By ABC7 Chicago Digital Team

CHICAGO (WLS) — You’ll soon be able to purchase tickets to visit the museum at the Obama Presidential Center.

Tickets for Founding Members go on sale starting April 21.

Ticket sales open to the general public on May 6. You’ll be able to book a date to visit, starting June 19 through November 30.

Admission is $30 for adults, and $23 for children ages three through eleven.

Kids two and under can visit for free.

The museum is also free on Tuesdays with proof of Illinois residency.

Article continues here.

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The Pols Who Failed Sheridan Gorman – WSJ

Posted in Crime, Deception, Ethics, Immigration, OP/Ed, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Wall Street Journal on April 1, 2026| 1 Comment »

Sheridan G. Gorman (Via Instagram)

By William McGurn | Wall Street Journal

Sheridan Gorman should still be alive. The 18-year-old freshman should be with her family and catching them up on what’s new at Chicago’s Loyola University. Instead she’s gone, and this weekend her family came with moist eyes and broken hearts to her funeral at the First Presbyterian Church in her hometown of Yorktown, N.Y.

This family has been through the unspeakable: The light of their lives snuffed out before her time, cut down as Ms. Gorman gathered by the Chicago lakefront with friends to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. The politicians who failed to protect her from a criminal have since compounded the pain with ill-conceived statements about who’s to blame. These statements—by the governor, the mayor, a Chicago alderwoman—weren’t intended to wound, but they did.

Our political class, apparently, has lost all sense of what’s important in moments like these. It’s become all about scoring political points against your enemies. Comforting the afflicted, supporting communities and individuals, all that comes later—or not at all. This is not normal.

Begin with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. A week ago he admitted there were “real failures” in the immigration and criminal-justice systems that led to this murder. The accused murderer is 25-year-old Jose Medina, a Venezuelan who crossed into the U.S. illegally amid the border chaos of the Biden years. He has been arrested and charged with Ms. Gorman’s murder.

Mr. Pritzker’s real message wasn’t the “real failures.” It was: This is Donald Trump’s fault, notwithstanding that there’s hardly a Republican to be found in Illinois. “I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily,” the governor said. “I agree. There have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois. There [are] national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst.”

Alderwoman Maria Hadden told Fox32’s Chicago Live last week that Gorman “might have been a wrong-place-wrong-time, running into a person who had a gun. They might have startled this person at the end of the pier unintentionally.” Ms. Hadden has since apologized for suggesting the victim caused her own death while blaming media for “intentionally creating sound bites to misconstrue my words during this tragedy.”

Not to be outdone, Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a master class in deflection when asked if he would apologize to Gorman’s parents for her death. He then characterized it as “senseless violence.” This was followed by a filibuster, in which he said the city’s sanctuary status was established 40 years ago and was somehow shaped by a 2021 criminal justice reform, which he incorrectly said was passed under Gov. Bruce Rauner who was—wait for it—a Republican. (The law was signed by Gov. Pritzker.)

Finally he, too, went to the old reliable: Mr. Trump. “He points the finger at everything and everyone else versus doing some real self-reflection on what his responsibility is.”

Article continues here.

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New IRS Migration Numbers: Illinois Taxpayers Continue to Flee With Their Income

Posted in Blame Canada, Cost of Living, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Fat Bastard, Immigration, Politics, Property Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on March 24, 2026| 1 Comment »

By Mark Glennon and John Klingner* | Wirepoints

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday released its annual numbers on taxpayer interstate migration, which are for changes from 2022 to 2023. In several ways, these numbers are more important than census numbers because they measure income taxpayers and are precise — the IRS knows and reports how many taxpayers changed their residence from one state to another.

Here are the key takeaways for Illinois:

  • For the year, Illinois lost 54,000 people (tax filers and their dependents), to net domestic out migration. That’s the 3rd most in the nation, behind only California and New York.
  • The annual incomes of people moving out of Illinois are far bigger than for those moving in — $104,000 vs. $79,000.
  • From 2000 through 2023, Illinois lost 780,000 net taxpayers (filers) to out-migration.
  • Adding in those taxpayers’ dependents, Illinois lost 1.6 million net residents to out-migration from 2000 through 2023.
  • Most importantly, since 2000, $94 billion of  Adjusted Gross Income left with departing taxpayers. That’s just for the first year after departure. Assuming they continued to work, the true aggregate total is far higher.

Details are in the charts shown.

On the surface, it may appear that Illinois’ rate of loss declined in that the number of taxpayer leaving with their income was less than recent years, as you can see in the charts. However, that reduction is likely attributable to the sharp decline in moves of any kind — to a record low. 2023 saw the fewest amount of moves nationwide since the U.S government began tracking the data in the 1940s. That reduction in moves resulted mostly from the sale sclerosis that set in as mortgage interest rates spiked from 2022 to 2023. That left many homeowners reluctant to sell because they did not want to give up the low-rate mortgages they obtained earlier.

Among other states, the biggest winners of taxpayers and income gained were Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Arizona, in that order.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Article continues here.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints and John Klingner was earlier its Research Director.

Editorial note: Those living in Illinois illegally, such as the 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant Jose Medina of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood who assassinated an 18-year-old Loyola University freshman recently, are likely not counted in the IRS figures.

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Pritzker doesn’t tell whole story on test scores

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Fat Bastard, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Immigration, Politics, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Unions on March 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Counter to the governor’s claims, Illinois students’ scores on a national assessment have dropped despite more education spending.

By Hannah Schmid | Illinois Policy Institute

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently touted Illinois eighth-graders’ reading and math scores as proof of increased public school funding’s effect on student success.

Here’s the reality: Illinois students’ scores have dropped despite that increased spending. And there’s more to the data than Pritzker let on about Illinois students outperforming those in other states.

If the governor wants to help students, he should join the majority of states that are opting into a federal program that provides donor money for students’ targeted needs.

Illinois student scores drop despite increased education spending

In his budget address last month, Pritzker said “historic investments” in public education have boosted student success. But Illinois student performance in both reading and math fell over the most recent 10 years of the National Assessment for Educational Progress.

Those declines weren’t just because of COVID-era shutdowns. Both eighth- and fourth-grade scores were dropping in both reading and math even before schools were closed.

During that same period from 2013 to 2024, the state’s spending on K-12 education rose by nearly $10 billion. That’s a 44% increase over a period when enrollment declined 10%.

Counter to Pritzker’s claims, the increased spending on Illinois schools has not improved student achievement.

Article continues here.

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JB Pritzker’s Political Brand Is at Stake—in a Race He’s Not Even Running In – Wall Street Journal

Posted in Clown Car, ComEd Four, Commodius Maximus, Cost of Living, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Fat Bastard, Illinois State Board of Elections, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, Wall Street Journal on March 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Illinois’s governor has given at least $5 million to a group backing his lieutenant governor and upsetting the Congressional Black Caucus. | Eileen T. Meslar / Chicago Tribune/Zuma Press

By John McCormick | Wall Street Journal

CHICAGO—Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s deep financial involvement in his state’s U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday has angered potential allies for his possible 2028 presidential bid.

The billionaire is helping finance a multimillion-dollar barrage of ads to boost Juliana Stratton, his lieutenant governor, in a race that is also testing Pritzker’s political clout in a state where he has leveraged his wealth to dominate the Democratic Party.

The contest has turned sharply negative in its closing weeks, while revealing divisions within the party over how progressive the Democratic brand should be. It has also become a debate about the influence of outside money.

Pritzker’s involvement has especially angered the Congressional Black Caucus, an influential party group backing one of its own, Rep. Robin Kelly (D., Ill.). Both Stratton and Kelly are Black.

“His behavior in this race won’t soon be forgotten by any of us,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D., N.Y.), the CBC’s leader, said in a statement also critical of the governor for trying to “tip the scales” in a primary.

Black voter support is critical in Democratic presidential primaries. Clarke declined an interview, while Pritzker recently told reporters he has a proven record of supporting nonwhite candidates.

“I would like a Black woman to represent us in the United States Senate. I just want the best person. She happens to be a Black woman,” he said. “I stand with communities of color across the state and with candidates who are running for public office.”

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, taking a selfie, has stressed her progressive leanings. | Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images

Article continues here.

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Barrington Hills Park District (Riding Cult) meets tonight

Posted in Agendas, Algonquin Rd, Animal Welfare, Barrington Hills Park District, Barrington Hills Polo Club, BraveHearts, Commercial Horse Boarding, Cost of Living, Countryside Elementary School, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, FRVPC, HARPS, Horizon Farm, Immigration, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, Lighting Ordinance, Massbach Hounds, Overhead, Politics, Privacy, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Riding Center Advisory Committee, Riding Club Commission, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Taxes, The Other Half, Transparency, Unions on March 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The Barrington Hills Park District Board/Riding Cult of Barrington Hills will hold their monthly meeting this evening in person and via Zoom at 6:00 PM. Some topics on their agenda include:

  • Horse Statues
  • Park Board Advocacy Protocol

A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

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How well are your local third graders reading?

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Taxes, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on December 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Illinois lowered its standards in 2025, but over half of third graders still couldn’t read at grade level. It’s a critical milestone. See how your students did.

By Hannah Schmid | Illinois Policy Institute

Even under loosened proficiency standards, over half of Illinois third graders couldn’t read at grade level in 2025.

How well did your local public school prepare children to read by the critical third-grade milestone?

Assessment data from spring 2025 shows Illinois students across grades continued to struggle to read.

But the data is particularly concerning when it comes to third graders.

If a child has not learned to read by the end of third grade, that child is likely to struggle throughout his or her education. That’s because fourth grade is when students move from learning to read to reading as their main method of learning.

Clearly, there is a literacy crisis in Illinois, and it threatens the future of Illinois’ children.

Read more here.

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Barrington village board passes welcoming resolution

Posted in 220, BACOG, Daily Herald, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Immigration, Politics, School Districts on November 26, 2025| 2 Comments »

By Steve Zalusky | Daily Herald

Barrington’s village board passed a resolution affirming the village is a welcoming community.

The board’s decision clarifies the village’s compliance with Illinois’ TRUST Act, Trustee Brian Prigge said. The state law prevents police agencies from assisting federal agents with immigration enforcement efforts.

“It is effectively synonymous with an ordinance, as the enforcement in the ordinance would not have any real teeth to it,” he said.

But residents who spoke at Monday’s board meeting spoke in favor of an ordinance along the lines of those passed by Wheeling, Evanston and Oak Park.

The resolution states the village does not support the use of any village-owned or operated properties or assets for immigration enforcement purposes.

It also declares its support and appreciation to people in the Barrington community who continue to work to foster safety and respect for all.

More here.

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