The question of immigration enforcement is one of the biggest themes of the 2026 election season, and Illinois’ Senate candidates are divided on the issue.
Democrats vying to become the party’s nominee in the race to replace Sen. Dick Durbin are arguing over whether to abolish ICE or whether the agency needs to be reformed, while Republicans are debating whether to continue President Donald Trump’s policies or if the president needs more Congressional input.
So where do the major candidates stand on the issue of immigration and ICE? Here they are in their own words, as explained to NBC Chicago Political Reporter Mary Ann Ahern.
Casey Chlebek (Republican)
“Our immigration system is 100 years old. It’s totally incompatible with the needs of today. And something failed dramatically,” he said. “We have an excess of illegal immigrants.
“I wrote a paper on the subject of immigration. And what I advanced for the new system, immigration system, is actually to have, I’ll call them recruitment centers outside of the country, where people come and based on our needs, our quota, and by industry, we can vet people outside of the country.
“(When) people are inside the country, that’s an internal security issue, and we have to look at it a little differently,” he added.
Jeannie Evans (Republican)
“I think the majority of Americans agree we need to enforce our immigration laws. I as an elected official in Illinois would be working hard to build cooperation. We need cooperation from the local and state level with the federal government,” she said.
“The federal you know the president wants to enforce the immigration laws, he wants to reduce crime and we need to work with him not resist. If the federal government is going to contribute resources to Illinois we should be very grateful and time having a conversation about what’s the best use of those resources how can we use them for you know permanent improvements,” she added.
Robin Kelly (Democrat)
“I say ICE should be dismantled as part of a whole system. I think the Homeland Department should be dismantled. And we need to start all over again because it’s ICE, but bigger than ICE,” she said. “It’s Border Patrol, they’re the ones that killed Alex Pretti, not ICE. And what are we doing with asylum seekers? What are we going with over the 11 million people that are working hard in this country? Paying into a system but not getting out of the system, what are we doing with DREAMers?
“So I think it’s ICE, but it’s bigger than ICE. ICE needs to go away, but there’s no member of Congress that’ll tell you we don’t need enforcement. We need enforcement, but not like we have it now. And maybe enforcement won’t even be in the Department of Homeland Security. Maybe it’ll be in the department of justice, not this one, when we get another one. We can go step by step through these agencies,” she added.
Raja Krishnamoorthi (Democrat)
“I don’t think there’s a big difference (between abolishing ICE or abolishing Trump’s ICE) except this, which is that I’m not gonna send a single dollar to DHS, and this is a position that I think Governor Pritzker has taken and others for good reason,” he said.
“The following changes have to happen: masks have to come off, body cameras have to go on, ID has to on, no more warrantless arrests, there can’t be. Anything but third-party investigations of the use of force, and there can’t be roving gangs of ICE or CBP agents anymore,” he added.
Juliana Stratton (Democrat)
“I’m calling to abolish ICE because I don’t see this as being an agency that can be reformed. Look at what we saw in Operation Midway Blitz, what we see in Minneapolis,” she said. “This is not an agency the way that Trump is operating it, it’s not an agency that’s focused on immigration or, quite frankly, public safety.
“So what I wanna see is let’s change the whole system and look at it from a holistic standpoint where we can invest more in immigration judges, community-based resources, social services, and help people have a real path to legal citizenship, not just criminalize our hardworking immigrant neighbors,” she added.
Don Tracy (Republican)
“Immigration law enforcement is the province of the federal government, as is immigration law in general. So I support closing the borders and then I also support enforcing immigration law. And throughout the country it has worked fairly well,” he said. “I was just in Memphis a couple days ago where I spent almost nine or ten years. And the federal surge down there has really made the streets safer in Memphis. Five thousand arrests, a thousand illegal firearms off the street, 150 missing children.
“Federal law enforcement and immigration is working where the local authorities cooperate, but where you have large groups, mobs, say, of trained and organized protestors who are stalking and blocking law enforcement operations and encouraged by the local authority who are not cooperating with the federal law enforcement. You have chaos. And that’s what we saw a taste of that here in Chicago. And then in Minneapolis, we saw it on steroids,” he added.
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