Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Tuesday accused Democrats of committing “insurrection” over their opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration enforcement.
Multiple riots have broken out at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, as resistance to the agency’s operations targeting illegal immigrants has intensified. Kudlow accused Democrats like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker of “inciting violence with their rhetoric” on “Kudlow,” arguing that “insurrections” were occurring throughout the nation and demanding they end, with Gingrich appearing to agree, at least in the case of Chicago.
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“This is a key test of whether or not, as [former President Abraham] Lincoln put it, government of the people, by the people and for the people is going to survive. I mean, you have a president, a House and a Senate which have been elected by the American people,” Gingrich said. “They’ve taken a clear position. And in the case of getting rid of illegal immigrants, particularly those who are crooks, there’s no question that that entire ICE program is legal, legitimate and acting under the control of the commander in chief.”
“So when you start having governors like Pritzker, you start having local officials literally interpose themselves between the federal government and their citizens, you’re seeing something which is, by any reasonable standard, an insurrection,” he added.
Gingrich then ran through examples of past presidents quelling insurrections.
“I mean, we’ve had these experiences. We’ve seen these problems. In the end, the Constitution works and the elected officials under the Constitution have the ability to get done what the American people ask for,” he said. “And those state and local officials who try to block it are engaged in insurrection. And in that sense, I think they’re liable to very serious penalties.”
Moreover, amid an illegal immigration crackdown, Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order establishing “ICE Free Zones” across his city, aiming to keep ICE and other federal immigration officials from accessing city-owned property, according to his office.
Trump asserted on Monday that he would weigh using the Insurrection Act “if it was necessary,” NBC News reported.
“So far it hasn’t been necessary,” Trump told reporters. “But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason.”
“If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that,” he added. “I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe.”
Pritzker and Johnson have opposed Trump deploying the National Guard to Chicago and claimed the move would be unconstitutional.
The National Guard arrived in Illinois on Tuesday, ABC News reported, citing sources familiar with their location, along with footage of them in a Chicago suburb.
“Illinois will not let the Trump Administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting,” Pritzker wrote on X Monday.
“We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities,” he added.
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