Mark Vargas exposes Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s policies endangering ICE agents, citing a 1,000% rise in assaults tied to their "stand down" orders and potential 20-year prison risks under federal obstruction laws. With $400M self-funded campaigns, they prioritize radical left-wing allies like AOC while ignoring Chicago’s 150,000 gang members and $2.5B in taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens since 2022. HB 1312’s "safe zones" and ICE agent doxxing efforts—mirroring NY AG Letitia James’ tactics—threaten federal authority, fueling speculation Illinois could shift Republican amid voter outrage over crime surges and unconstitutional overreach. [Automatically generated summary]
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Welcome back into the Stone Zone.
Well, I think it should be apparent to anyone who's watching that Illinois billionaire governor J.B. Pritzker, a rather rotund individual,
sees himself as the 2028 Democrat candidate for president and evidently thinks he can get there essentially by thwarting the will of the American people in the last election and doing everything humanly possible to stop President Donald Trump and ICE agents from deporting dangerous illegal criminals from the windy city of Chicago.
He is aided in this endeavor by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Last time I looked, his approval rating as mayor was at 6%, something I've never seen in American politics.
Clearly, Pritzker believes that kowtowing to the most radical left wing of the Democrat Party is the way to capture their hearts.
There is no better observer of J.B. Pritzker and his political antics, which endanger the public as well as federal agents than Mark Vargas.
He is the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review, and he joins us now.
Mark, welcome to the Stone Zone.
Great to be with you, Roger.
So I'm going to take this in order.
Several weeks ago, you reported that Governor J.B.
Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson had issued an order to the Chicago police specifically prohibiting them from protecting or defending ICE agents who may have been in danger during the performance of their duties to arrest in preparation for deportation, dangerous illegals in Chicago.
And you further made the point after consulting with a number of legal experts that they could both personally face legal liability over this policy.
So tell us what's going on.
Yeah, Roger, since 2022, Chicago has welcomed over 52,000 illegal aliens under Joe Biden's open border policy.
And over $2.5 billion have been spent, taxpayer money, to make sure that these illegal aliens have free health care.
But what Pritzker and Johnson have been doing, the executive orders that they've signed that put federal ICE agents, their lives in grave danger, this stand down order where local police, local law enforcement cannot participate and assist federal ICE agents.
I've spoken to numerous legal experts and attorneys on both sides of the aisle, and they all agree that there is a strong case for Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson's actions that could land them up to 20 years in federal prison.
Let me just highlight just very briefly a few of these.
8 U.S. Code 1324.
It's a felony to conceal, harbor, or shield illegal aliens from detection.
8.
U.S. Code 1373 prohibits local governments from restricting communication between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
And finally, 18 U.S. Code 111 makes it a crime to forcibly assault, resist, impede, or intimidate or interfere with federal officers engaged in their duties.
And we're seeing that happen in real time.
That's why there's over 1,000% increase in assaults on federal ICE agents.
It's because it's a combination of both Pritzker and Johnson's dangerous and vile rhetoric aimed at federal ICE agents.
And it's also because of these executive orders that they've signed that prohibit local law enforcement from providing any assistance should they be in trouble.
This is really quite extraordinary.
President Trump himself has said that based on their illegal orders, Pritzker and Brandon Johnson should be in jail.
The president's comments came after reports that Chicago police officers had actually been ordered to stand down as ICE agents faced a hostile crowd in the Brighton Park area of Chicago.
According to CWB Chicago, one ICE agent urgently radioed for backup, warning he was being surrounded.
Instead of authorizing assistance, the Chicago Police Department leadership allegedly ordered city officers to retreat from the area entirely, leaving federal agents to fend for themselves.
This is truly disgraceful.
I don't understand the politics of this.
In other words, who do Pritzker and Johnson think they are appealing to?
We saw that when the president moved the National Guard into Washington, D.C., when the crime rates just got untenable, when the city was just incredibly dangerous for its residents, as well as anyone who was visiting or working there,
that the local residents, regardless of whether they were African-American, Hispanic, or whether they were Caucasians, overwhelmingly approved the president's move to bring safety and security to their neighborhoods and communities.
So who do Pritzker and Johnson think they're appealing to here?
Well, Pritzker doesn't have a constituency.
It's important for your listeners to know that he's spent nearly $400 million of his own money.
He's a billionaire of his own money to be elected governor twice.
So he doesn't have a constituency.
He's literally bought the governor's seat.
But he's playing to the far-left progressive George Soros types of the Democratic Party, the AOCs, the progressive liberals that hate America, that prioritize lawbreakers over law-abiding citizens.
And he's losing support across the city of Chicago.
We're seeing evidence of that.
The streets are a war zone.
Yet Pritzker likes to get up early in the morning and take video of a park at 6 o'clock in the morning, talking about how peaceful it is.
Well, Pritzker, all the violent criminals are asleep because they've created chaos between the hours of 1 and 3.30 a.m.
And he's also not telling you that he's surrounded by about a dozen heavily armed bodyguards and a bulletproof SUV.
But the residents know in Chicago that the city is a war zone.
The streets are dangerous.
There's a 150,000 gang members and only 11,000 police officers.
They're far outnumbered.
But yet Pritzker likes to think that it's okay to prioritize illegals over law-abiding citizens.
And what the sad part is, is that critical programs, maternal health programs, hospitals in the south and west sides of Chicago and predominantly black neighborhoods, they're shutting down because of little or no funding.
Chicago has some of the highest infant mortality rates in the country.
And instead of allocating money to save the lives of little black babies, Pritzker and Johnson instead want to put $2.5 billion to make sure that illegal aliens, lawbreakers, have free health care.
It's an unpopular perspective.
Nationally, Americans are against this.
They support the president and his actions going into these Democratic cities.
And Pritzker and Johnson are on the wrong side of the law on this issue.
And lastly, they're on the wrong side of history on this issue.
Doing away with cash bail has proved to be an enormous mistake in the city of New York.
The city of New York's crime statistics are heavily doctored, so they really, the crime statistics that the New York City Police Department, the once great New York City Police Department, which is now a woke agency, reports to the FBI are heavily, heavily manipulated.
Cash bail has not worked out for New York State at all.
Yet Illinois Democrats and J.B. Pritzker have done away with cash bail, which I think adds to the problem in the city of Chicago.
As I recall, Pritzker is fabulously wealthy.
Pritzkers are, of course, the famous Hyatt Hotel family.
He spent his own personal money to buy the governorship twice.
Mark, you told me recently that he basically funds the entire Democrat Party as well as the Democrat ticket in a state that has unfortunately become redder and redder.
Do you believe that it is still possible, pardon me, bluer and bluer, I misspoke.
Do you believe it is possible that Illinois could yet elect a Republican governor?
Absolutely.
And my favorite part of this, Roger, is yes, he is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel Fortune, and he's worth almost $4 billion, but he hates paying property taxes.
And in fact, when he was running for governor, it was revealed that he bought a mansion next to his in the Gold Coast neighborhood of downtown Chicago, and he instructed the plumbers to rip out all the toilets in the mansion so that it could legally be uninhabitable.
Why?
Because he didn't want to pay over $300,000 in property taxes.
This is the same guy who bought the governor's seat by spending nearly $400 million of his own money.
But what Pritzker and Johnson have done has destroyed our city.
You talk about no cash bail.
67,000, here's a specific number for you.
67,000 criminals are free and out on the streets today because of no cash bail.
And how do we know that?
Because they've all missed their court hearings.
67,000 criminals missed their court hearings.
What did Chicago do?
They sent them a postcard in the mail and said, sorry, we missed you at your hearing.
Hopefully you come back next time.
And so we're seeing this.
90% of violent and dangerous criminals are out on the streets along with the 67,000.
Why?
Because they've never been identified or charged.
If you want to create a violent crime, if you want to create murder or be involved and participate in mass shootings, you've got to do it in the city of Chicago because the justice system is not for the victim.
The justice system is for the criminal.
And it is so backwards.
But, you know, Governor Pritchard has presidential aspirations.
A local national poll had him polling at just 2%.
He's wildly unpopular.
But it is possible that Chicago can turn red because of what's happening, the money being reallocated to illegal aliens, while they want to raise taxes in order to make up for the difference.
The black community is outraged that they're bearing black babies because of high mortality rates because there's no funding.
We are going to see, I think we're seeing a realignment of politics in America, and it's going to start in the city of Chicago.
And mark my words, I believe we will, under President Trump's leadership and his strong tough on crime policies, we will flip Chicago red.
I would love to see that.
I would truly love to see that.
You're right about looking at the early polling.
I mean, assuming a field that could include California Governor Gavin Newsom, just this past week, former Vice President Kamala Harris told us that she's not finished.
And she would, for the Democrat nomination, be extraordinarily formidable, having just spent $400 million between her campaign and PAC money to be a candidate for president.
Bernie Sanders, I don't know if he's going to try yet again.
He skimmed so much money in media placement fees for he and his wife, which is not illegal, but without disclosing that to your donors, I'm not sure it is ethical.
He skimmed millions from his two presidential campaigns, so he may be in for yet another griff.
But it seems to me that their bench is very, very thin.
I would think that Newsom and Kamala Harris both having a base out of California, that is initially problematic, probably for both of them, but more so for Newsom, who is trying to reinvent himself yet again.
All these candidates, however, seem to think that by grabbing the most left, most crazed, progressive agenda of the Democrat Party is the way to get nominated.
A Bill Clinton, if he existed today within the confines of the Democrat Party, a moderate Democrat governor, Bill Clinton actually wanted to balance the federal budget.
No Democrat says that today, could not get nominated in their party.
I think their party has been taken over by a radical Marxist clique.
And that clique is led by AOC, by Jasmine Crockett, by that pompous old socialist windbag, Bernie Sanders, and Democrats like Brandon Johnson.
Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago, who has a 150-person security squad protecting him, according to what I read last week, he says there is no danger.
He keeps calling, I think he keeps calling for insurrection against the government.
I think he has stepped over the line in his public comments when the president seeks to fulfill his constitutional authority to detain, arrest, and deport violent, illegal criminals.
So the Democrats have no candidate.
The Republican Party has obviously a strong candidate, and JD Vance, the sitting vice president, who's demonstrating the energy.
I thought his speech at Turning Point USA yesterday was really exceptional.
We also have a strong bench for our ticket.
Marco Rubio is turning out to be a standout as Secretary of State.
Tulsi Gabbard, of course, who exposed the entire Russian collusion hoax.
They have no bench.
The Republican Party has a substantial bench, and Donald Trump is compiling a strong record to run on, both in the economy and also in the area of foreign policy where he is rightfully won the title of peacemaker.
Nobody could have ever predicted his diplomatic prowess, but pulling together all of these peace deals, which I've argued right here in the stone zone, should entitle him to the Nobel Peace Prize, America is indeed headed for a golden age.
I'm Roger Stone.
States vs. Federal Law00:04:44
We're talking to Mark Vargas, the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review.
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The Stone Zone.
Entertaining and informative.
On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Welcome back.
I appreciate those warm words from Vice President JD Vance talking to Mark Vargas, the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review.
Mark, in the early mornings on past Friday, Illinois lawmakers quietly passed one of the most dangerous and unconstitutional measures in the state's history, according to a piece that you have up today on the Illinois Review, cloaked in compassionate language about safe zones.
This bill is nothing more than a political stunt, you say, that undermines the rule of law and puts federal law enforcement officers directly in the crosshairs.
HB 1312 designates so-called safe zones around schools, hospitals, and courthouses, and it gives private citizens the power to sue federal immigration officers for alleged violations of constitutional rights, including claims of false imprisonment or unlawful detention.
I think they would actually have that anyway.
But let's be clear what this really means.
If a federal immigration and customs enforcement agent, you write, makes a lawful arrest that an activist later disagrees with, that agent could be sued in state court simply for doing his or her job.
Tell us about what's going on here.
Isn't it just remarkable that you've got the Illinois Democrats who have a super majority control in Springfield?
Their grip on power is so strong that they don't even need any input from a single Republican in either the House or Senate chambers.
And around 2 o'clock this morning, actually, is when they pass this bill.
They like to talk about that this is protecting civil rights, when in fact, Roger, it's actually weaponizing state law to intimidate federal officers.
But more than that, I believe, and in talking with other legal experts and attorneys, that this is completely unacceptable and unconstitutional.
Why?
Because of the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution, which makes federal law the supreme law of the land, and that states like Illinois cannot pass laws that obstruct, penalize, or interfere with federal operations.
And I want to make a particular point here.
Think about you or I or any other citizen, law-abiding citizen, Roger, citizens that listen to your show.
Imagine if we put together legislation or if we put together policies or signed executive orders as private citizens that endangered the lives of federal officers, particularly federal ICE agents.
Where would we be?
We would be locked up.
We would be arrested and locked up in 0.003 seconds.
Yet the Illinois Democrats, led by Pritzker and Johnson, have created laws, have created executive orders that put federal agents' lives in grave danger.
And now, now they want to arrest them.
Pritzker has created just last week, if you remember, Roger, he's created a new commission to document the names of all the federal ICE agents so that at some point, when a Democrat is elected president of the United States, that they can prosecute every single one of them.
But the United States Supreme Court has been clear.
There are multiple cases going back to the early 1800s and as recently as 2012 that reaffirmed the same principle.
States may not obstruct federal authority.
Yeah, we've seen the same thing in New York where New York Attorney General Letitia James has set up a portal so that people can report the identities of ICE agents.
My fear, of course, is that she's going to dox those agents and put their lives and the lives of their families in danger.
Again, I think that these activities are illegal under federal law.
But it's the same playbook.
They weaponize the criminal justice system against Republicans and they attempt to rig the system against ICE agents who are simply trying to cooperate.
All right, we have to wrap it up there.
Mark, tell people where folks can follow the Illinois Review.
Follow us at illinoisreview.com on our website, Illinois Review on X, and they can follow me at X at Mark A. Vargas.
There you have it.
Thanks for the Zone Roger00:01:39
Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
Remember, a man is not finished when he is defeated.
He only is finished when he quits.
And in the fight for liberty and freedom, I will never quit.
That's why we're here five days a week talking about news, history, politics, style, occasionally talk about food.
So join us in the Stone Zone for more of our incisive political analysis, things I've learned in my 50 years in the corroded rectum of the two-party system.
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Until the next time, God bless you and Godspeed.
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