Illinois Accountability Commission requests testimony from Trump administration about Operation Midway Blitz

The Illinois Accountability Commission, a panel created by Gov. JB Pritzker in response to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the Chicago area last year, is asking the federal officials who ran Operation Midway Blitz to testify at two hearings to dig into federal agents' tactics.

The panel sent letters on Friday to: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Trump administration border czar Tom Homan, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, former Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, former Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, former Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, and Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Rodney Scott.

"I established the Illinois Accountability Commission to preserve the truth and document how Donald Trump and his accomplices violated the rights of Illinoisans and terrorized our communities during Operation Midway Blitz. These officials should answer directly to the people of Illinois for the chaos and violence they unleashed," Pritzker said in a statement. "Regardless of whether these officials are still in their roles or not, the people of Illinois demand accountability from them all."

The governor created the Illinois Accountability Commission in October, telling CBS News at the time it would serve as a permanent record of alleged civil rights abuses by federal agents in Chicago. 

Pritzker told CBS News the state would document "unlawful attacks" by ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers under Operation Midway Blitz. 

"They are attacking people on the ground — ICE, CBP — going after people just because they're Brown or Black," Pritzker said in October. "No one above them is holding them responsible. Greg Bovino, who is running the operation in Chicago, isn't holding them accountable. No one is. So we're going to have to keep a record." 

Bovino and many of the Border Patrol officers under his command left Chicago in November, and Operation Midway Blitz and the Trump administration's enhanced immigration operations in the area have largely wound down since then.

Pritzker's office said hundreds of videos and firsthand accounts of the immigration crackdown already had been collected in October when the commission was launched and will be preserved for use in future legal proceedings. 

"These people need to be held accountable," he said. "And they will be — by the judiciary now, and by Congress or the next administration later." 

Former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Ruben Castillo, is the commission's chair and will lead two public hearings on April 27 and April 28 in downtown Chicago to seek answers about the Trump administration's tactics during Operation Midway Blitz.

"The people of Illinois deserve to know how this operation was planned, authorized, and carried out—and to identify who was responsible for the decisions that led to its implementation in our state," Castillo said in a statement. "The Commission's work seeks to determine who authorized these actions, what safeguards were in place to protect Illinois residents, and what accountability mechanisms exist when federal operations harm communities."

Up to 20 members of the public will be invited to speak for up to two minutes each at the hearings. Anyone interested in speaking at the hearings can fill out and submit an interest form online between April 20 and April 23.

If officials from the Trump administration decline to attend the hearings, it's unclear who else is expected to testify.

A White House spokesperson blasted the request for Trump administration testimony at the hearings as a "political stunt," calling Pritzker "a total slob."

"If this slob spent half as much time addressing crime and public safety concerns in Chicago as he did pandering to radical leftists, Chicagoans would be much safer. The Trump Administration, and our heroic ICE officers, will unapologetically remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American streets whether Pritzker likes it or not," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.