Chambana Sun

Illinois state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) offers an analogy to describe Democrats' relentless opposition to President Donald Trump's administration on the issue of immigration.

“It’s like picking a fight with your neighbor, and your neighbor is your boss at work,” Caulkins told the Chambana Sun. “I think it’s the whole Democratic Party, and we’re seeing this on all levels, state and national.”

Caulkins cites as the most recent example Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signing into law this week a pair of immigration bills that grant more protections to immigrant children. Guardians to children of parents who are detained or deported by federal immigration officials can now serve in the role for two years rather than one. Pritzker also inked legislation that allows undocumented children who have been abused or neglected to petition for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.

“What we’re seeing is for some reason the Democratic Party is more interested in taking care of illegal immigrants,” Caulkins said. “Immigrants are a necessary part of our culture, but the problem that we’re having now is the illegal immigrants are not going through a process that we use to screen folks. It’s very concerning that Gov. Pritzker is more interested in taking care of illegals than he is the homeless.”

The new laws come at a time of raised debate on the issue after an incident at O’Hare International Airport where three girls were held for half a day by U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities after arriving in Chicago on a flight from Mexico with a relative who was denied entry into the country. While the girls are U.S. citizens, their parents are not and the mother claimed she was apprehensive about picking up her children because she feared she too might be detained or deported.