{"id":527164,"date":"2026-03-16T16:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/527164\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:50:12","slug":"illinois-senate-primary-tests-democrats-anti-ice-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/527164\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Senate primary tests Democrats’ anti-ICE message"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi\u2019s Senate campaign has been blanketing the Illinois airwaves for months. For his final TV ad<\/a> before the March 17 Democratic primary, he focused on standing up to President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n

So did the TV ad before that. And the one before that, too.<\/p>\n

Fully two-thirds of the TV ads in the last month of the race have mentioned ICE, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. And it\u2019s not just in Illinois: Nearly a quarter of all TV ads from Democratic campaigns across the country in the last month have referenced the agency.<\/p>\n

The Illinois race \u2014 a contested open primary after Sen. Dick Durbin decided to retire \u2014 could be an early test of how anti-ICE messaging is playing out in Democratic primaries this year, including what most motivates the party base. Krishnamoorthi, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly have each staked out slightly different positions on the agency, with Krishnamoorthi speaking of reforms and abolishing \u201cTrump\u2019s ICE,\u201d Stratton taking a simpler \u201cabolish ICE\u201d line, and Kelly calling to \u201cdismantle\u201d ICE.<\/p>\n

The focus on ICE comes amid broad pushback on the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown following enforcement surges in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens earlier this year. The campaign is also an early test of whether the issue has staying power, even as federal agents draw down some operations. Democrats say it does.<\/p>\n

\u201cFighting ICE has become synonymous with opposing and fighting back against Trump,\u201d said Brandon Davis, a Democratic consultant who worked on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s successful 2023 campaign.<\/p>\n

On the airwaves<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an immigrant myself,\u201d Krishnamoorthi says in his closing ad<\/a>. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy, but when things got tough, our neighbors had our backs. That\u2019s why stopping Trump and ICE\u2019s attacks on our communities is deeply personal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorthi told NBC News in an interview that his closing message ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Democratic Senate primary came after facing attacks from his chief opponent, Stratton, for accepting campaign donations from a top executive at Palantir, a software company and ICE contractor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne big fact that she fails to mention is that I\u2019m an immigrant. I\u2019m the only immigrant in this race,\u201d Krishnamoorthi said, later adding: \u201cWhen ICE terrorizes a community, when it racially profiles brown people, I say, \u2018There but for the grace of God, go I.\u2019 That could be me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stratton\u2019s first TV ad<\/a>, which included bleeped-out expletives aimed<\/a> at the president, also touted her call to \u201cabolish ICE.\u201d Stratton noted in an interview that the community was still reeling from the enforcement surge in the Chicago area last year, known as Operation Midway Blitz<\/a>, during which agents shot two people<\/a> and roughly 1,600 people were arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fear that people have has not left just because one day they packed up and said, \u2018OK, Operation Midway Blitz, we\u2019re going to put a pause on it,\u2019\u201d Stratton said. \u201cPeople are still scared and they\u2019re still worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said in an interview that Operation Midway Blitz affected her congressional district, which stretches from Chicago\u2019s South Side into rural parts of the state, including an incident where a helicopter landed on an apartment building<\/a> and dozens of immigrants were arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely horrific,\u201d Kelly said. One of her first TV ads<\/a> of the race featured footage of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two Minnesotans killed by federal agents in January.<\/p>\n

Those killings galvanized Americans, and Democrats in particular, in opposition to ICE and Customs and Border Protection tactics.<\/p>\n

A NBC News Decision Desk Poll<\/a> conducted in the weeks after those deaths found 67% of Americans, including 97% of Democrats, said ICE and CBP agents\u2019 tactics had gone too far, while 23% said they had been about right and 10% said they had not gone far enough. Two-thirds of Americans disapproved of how ICE was handling its job, including 96% of Democrats.<\/p>\n

But Kelly stressed that \u201caffordability is still the main issue\u201d ahead of Tuesday\u2019s primary. Her final TV ad <\/a>of the race does not mention the issue of immigration, instead touting her positions to lower costs as she says, \u201cIt\u2019s time to focus on what really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Different approaches<\/p>\n

Stratton, Krishnamoorthi and Kelly all approach the ICE issue slightly differently, raising questions about what is most appealing to Democratic voters.<\/p>\n

Stratton notes that she is the only candidate calling to completely abolish the agency, saying in an interview, \u201cI want to abolish ICE because I don\u2019t believe that this agency can be reformed. I want ICE and CBP out of our American cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how immigration enforcement would be carried out if ICE no longer existed, Stratton said, \u201cI believe that we need to look at a more holistic approach where we\u2019re investing in immigration judges, where we\u2019re investing in social services and community-based resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can still have, of course, security at the border, and we can still address issues like smuggling and trafficking,\u201d Stratton said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t take this sort of one-size-fits-all approach where, you know, immigrants, our immigrant communities, are criminalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorthi has called to \u201cabolish Trump\u2019s ICE,\u201d explaining in an interview that he is pushing for certain reforms including barring agents from wearing masks, requiring them to wear identification, ending \u201cwarrantless arrests\u201d and stopping \u201croving gangs of ICE and CBP agents stirring up trouble in our cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m saying is there\u2019s going to be immigration enforcement of some kind,\u201d Krishnamoorthi said. \u201cThere was under Barack Obama or Joe Biden, and there will be in the future. And there are other functions, such as policing human trafficking, child sex trafficking, controlling fentanyl at the borders \u2014 all those functions will have to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever,\u201d Krishnamoorthi went on, \u201cthey cannot continue in the present format.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly has called to \u201cdismantle\u201d ICE and the Department of Homeland Security itself, saying the department is \u201ctoo big, too unwieldy and they\u2019re not accountable.\u201d Kelly has also touted her effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month and is set to leave her post soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any member of Congress that doesn\u2019t think there needs to be some type of enforcement,\u201d Kelly said of her calls to dismantle the department, later adding: \u201cWe need to have a plan and we need to look at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anti-ICE politics<\/p>\n

The various ways each Democrat would deal with ICE underscore the tricky politics of the issue, as some moderate Democrats argue that embracing the slogan of \u201cabolish ICE,\u201d which first began to take hold during the first Trump administration, damaged the party long term.<\/p>\n

The moderate Democratic think tank Third Way in January encouraged the party<\/a> to focus on addressing ICE\u2019s tactics rather than calling for the agency to be abolished, arguing that the \u201cabolish ICE\u201d position could be a \u201cpolitically lethal\u201d one that Republicans could easily weaponize.<\/p>\n

Stratton dismissed those concerns, saying, \u201cAnyone who wants to talk about what can be weaponized, how about the fact that the federal government is being weaponized against our own citizens? That\u2019s the real travesty here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stratton and her allies are betting it\u2019s a position that will resonate with Democratic primary voters. Illinois Future PAC, a super PAC funded largely by Gov. JB Pritzker, who has endorsed Stratton, touted her position on ICE in one of the group\u2019s first TV ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrimary voters want ICE to be held accountable. They don\u2019t want you to just come in and say, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going to do some sort of reform,\u2019\u201d said Illinois Future PAC spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh.<\/p>\n

The NBC News Decision Desk Poll<\/a> found that while virtually all Democrats wanted to overhaul ICE, they were split over how exactly to do it. Half of Democrats said ICE should be \u201creformed\u201d while 48% said it should be \u201cabolished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois Future PAC has also launched attacks against Krishnamoorthi on the issue<\/a>, knocking him for taking donations from a Palantir executive and for supporting a resolution<\/a> that expressed \u201cgratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorthi has denounced the attacks, noting that resolution was actually condemning an antisemitic attack in Colorado. His campaign also donated to charity the funds<\/a> from Shyam Sankar \u2014 Palantir\u2019s chief technology officer, who also joined an Army initiative <\/a>as a senior adviser last year \u2014 following a Chicago Sun-Times<\/a> report on Krishnamoorthi campaign donors with ties to Trump.<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorthi suggested the donations from Sankar, who had given to Krishnamoorthi\u2019s campaigns since 2015, were driven by an effort to increase South Asian representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s common in the community for people to do that, but you\u2019d have to ask him,\u201d Krishnamoorthi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not beholden to any one individual, one special interest, one set of actors,\u201d the congressman later said. \u201cAnd as you know, nobody\u2019s bankrolling my campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorthi has called the attack an \u201cexample of hypocrisy,\u201d knocking Stratton for contributions to the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association from CoreCivic, a private prison firm and ICE contractor. CoreCivic operated ICE\u2019s facility<\/a> in the Chicago suburb Broadview, which became the center of local protests<\/a> against the agency.<\/p>\n

Stratton has said she did not personally solicit those donations and encouraged the group to return the funds. The DLGA, which is supporting Stratton in the race, has said it will no longer accept donations<\/a> from CoreCivic and will donate 2024 and 2025 contributions to an immigrant rights group.<\/p>\n

DLGA executive director Kevin Holst said in an interview that the attacks on Stratton, which have also been leveled by Fairshake<\/a>, a group tied to the cryptocurrency industry, are \u201creally preposterous guilt by association.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very disingenuous attack because Juliana Stratton did not solicit any contribution from CoreCivic, while Raja Krishnamoorthi personally picked up the phone year after year to solicit money from the CTO of Palantir,\u201d Holst said.<\/p>\n

Even as the attacks and ads continue to fly ahead of Tuesday\u2019s primary, Chicago-based Democratic strategist Jaimey Sexton noted that the candidates were largely aligned in opposition to ICE and the administration\u2019s deportation efforts, which until recently<\/a> had been led by Border Patrol\u2019s Greg Bovino.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever goes to the Senate is going to be good on the issue for Democrats,\u201d Sexton said. \u201cNobody\u2019s going to say, \u2018Let\u2019s bring Greg Bovino back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi\u2019s Senate campaign has been blanketing the Illinois airwaves for months. For his final TV ad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-527164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}