The MeidasTouch Podcast - Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on Trump ICE Chaos

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on how Donald Trump’s attacks on Democratic cities have unleashed hell and Meiselas interviews Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias about his response to Trump’s attack on Illinois. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. I want to take you all to the streets of Chicago to show you what's going on there. It's happening also here in Los Angeles and cities across the United States of America, masked ICE agents kind of walking through and chasing people who are not criminals, migrants who are vendors, migrants working in restaurants, migrants in Home Depot parking lots. I just want you to see this image because it is something that should never be normalized. Here, play this clip.

You know, and here in Los Angeles, we're seeing the ICE agents and people, I guess, deputized to be ICE agents with their masks going through these hardworking Latino communities here You know I also saw the same thing in Chicago in areas where you have Latino communities living I saw this on until a mundo where you saw Husbands being separated from their eight-month pregnant wife. Here, play this clip. Hey, just a moment. They took my baby. I'm going to take her. Take my baby.

I can take her. Don't sign anything. He's not doing anything to work to give them food. You don't have food. You don't have children. You have children. Then you've got people showing up for their court appointments, going through their lawful process, showing up where they'll get a message from ICE, hey, you know, if you want to renew your

status here, you have to come in. And they go in and then they get arrested and then they get sent to expedited deportations. Some of the local Chicago media did a report on this. Here's the local Fox affiliate. 10 people were taken by ICE, loaded into a van and driven away under a cloud of confusion and fear. It's just an attempt to get numbers, nothing more. A lot of the people here are in asylum proceedings.

In recent days, text messages like It reads in part your ice you to come to the office case this week. So they r the Department of Homeland supervision appearance p Cermak and michigan when the building, automatically

really sell. The site is near Cermak and Michigan. When they go inside the building, automatically they've been arrested. Really, sir. The site is used for case management. These are people who came to renew their work permits and were abducted. Attorneys like Cynthia Fernandez say they were separated from their clients. Fernandez tells us the woman she represents is a mother of three,

who believed the check-in would be routine and even brought her Bible. Just hearing them cry, I don't know if it was her, but the women were crying and it's just horrible because I couldn't do anything. As word from attorneys inside reached elected officials, advocates gathered outside. In a Gestapo fashion, 50 agents or so walked down the street, stood right here in front of the driveway, then aggressively came through, knocked me down, assaulted me and other community members here today. A large group tried to stop the van from leaving but was... And then here's what we're

seeing in Los Angeles. Just I could show you any city, but here's Los Angeles. Several people were running upwards Wilkins Place. I informed them that ICE agents were around the area. They were aware of that and then that's when an SUV pulled up, came out. Two agents tackled down a individual with no questions. They placed his face into the dirt, physically apprehending him. Let's bring in Illinois secretary of state, Alexi Janulius. Secretary, you see these images. You see Donald Trump using the language of authoritarians at war with foreign countries about democratic cities. And he's singled out Los Angeles. the language of authoritarians at war with foreign countries about democratic cities.

And he's singled out Los Angeles, he's talked about Chicago, and he uses war language. I mean, what went through your mind when you saw him at the G7? He's standing there next to Prime Minister Carney, and he's talking about Chicago and your state of Illinois and other democratic cities as though it were a foreign country that we're about to go to war with. Yeah, well, horrifying, sad, depressing.

But this is the authoritarianism that we've seen under this administration. And I can be sad all day, and I can be scared and I could be disappointed in what's happening in our country, or we could stand up, step up, and really fight back. And I believe in the promise of America. Both my parents were immigrants who came to this country because they believed in the promise of America. And I can't believe we have to have this conversation and these conversations in the year 2025.

But we have some fighters here in Chicago, and we're going to do everything we can to protect our democracy, to protect this country, and to help fight back against the erosion of our freedoms and fundamental rights. Let's talk about that. You're one of the fighters there in the great state of Illinois. fight back against the erosion of our freedoms and fundamental rights. Let's talk about that. You're one of the fighters there in the great state of Illinois. One of the things that we have seen ICE using is trying to take advantage of some of those

surveillance cameras that capture the license plates and other devices that in the past may have been used for under the pretense of kind of crime prevention or protection or whatever, but they're using it to identify migrants. So I know you took some action in the state of Illinois that's relevant here. Yeah, I could not be more proud of the legislation that we passed two years ago. So automatic license plate readers are used to allegedly supposed to only be used for carjackings, motor vehicle theft, helping with kidnapping cases. But after Roe versus Wade was overturned, we decided to be proactive in Illinois. We passed a bill through our office that became law to make to make

sure that automatic license plate readers were not used for cases of abortion or immigration. I was very proud of that, quite frankly, but I did not think that we would have to use this legislation, but what we found out a few weeks ago was that a law enforcement agency in Texas was using these automatic license plate readers to target women who are traveling into Illinois for legal abortions and were tracking immigrants. And this is horrifying stuff.

This is like straight out of a movie, Handmaid's Tale. And what we're seeing is law enforcement agencies outside of Illinois weaponizing this technology against our most vulnerable citizens, including those who are immigrants that are here legally, that are protected under Illinois law, and women seeking legal healthcare. So I'm proud of our legislation. We stepped up, we shut off any kind of ability for 46 different law enforcement agencies to track this information. Again, this is like, it's like Handmaid's Tale type stuff and I'm

proud of the work that we're doing here in Illinois. If I back, we're the first day in the country as of right now, we're the only state in the country to afford these protections to Illinois citizens but we hope that other states pick up this mantle and do the same thing. Let's talk about more broadly some of the ways you're able to use your office to fight back against the Trump regime. You mentioned one way right there through auditing and making sure that this technology is not being used for nefarious purposes but if you can speak to you know, kind of the broader plan and the broader strategy as You know the Trump regime is no I even think going beyond a lot of people's worst-case nightmare

Scenarios, it's real. real. It's happening in the streets. This isn't, you know, some make believe world of hypotheticals. You know, America, and you use the word too, authoritarian. I mean, it looks like all of the conditions of authoritarianism are here right now. And it's happening and it's playing out most significantly in a state like Illinois. Yeah, well, I should begin by saying we are very fortunate in Illinois to have leaders who are stepping up. We have a governor who continues to do the right thing, who continues to act with courage, who understands what's really at stake.

And again, I don't think the average American is really paying attention to the bit by bit danger that's happening every day, every week, the corrosion of these values that this country has always stood for. It's kind of like when you put a frog in boiling water, they'll notice right away. But if you slowly start turning up the temperature, that's what's happening in America. And we need people, not just elected officials, community leaders and activists, but we need everyday citizens to push back on this.

It shouldn't matter whether you're a Democrat or Republican. Everyone should be disgusted by this behavior, this administration, which by the way, not only is dangerous and acting like an authoritarian regime, but is also combining that with tremendous ability to get anything done, whether it's on the economic front, whether it's on the education front. So literally, I'm trying to find ways to find something that this administration is doing properly, and we can't do it.

So we've taken a lot of action here in Illinois to make sure we protect information. We have 11 million individuals that have driver's license and license plates to keep this information out of the hands of ICE, unless there's a warrant. We're protecting that data and back to the automatic license plate readers. To me, it's, you know, it's bigger than just these automatic license plate readers per se that the insidious nature of this type of government surveillance extends beyond the violation of individual privacy. It corrodes the foundations of trust

that, quite frankly, are essential for a healthy democracy to have. And I think people need to pay attention to what's happening. And again, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, your personal privacy should be protected. Imagine the upheaval on Fox News. If a Democratic administration was tracking the license plates of folks that were going

to a MAGA rally or a Donald Trump rally, it would be up in arms, there'd be lawsuits, it would be mayhem. So we're saying let's put those protections in place to do everything we can to make sure our democracy survives this unruly administration. You know, I think about all of the mantras that came from the right wing, which was all just a form of gaslighting. Oh, therefore states rights, states rights, but apparently now they believe that they should be able to nationalize, federalize the National Guard and send the Marines into

states and take resources away from governors. All of the things that they've been saying of the past, however, it just seems really what they wanted was they wanted their Kim Jong-un. They wanted their ridiculous looking, makeup wearing, bizarro, two week taco, Trump always chicken, like it seems like they just wanted, they looked to North Korea. We were like, America's leading the world.

They were like, nah, Kim Jong-un and they got it and they're relishing this pain and suffering but I do think that things are changing. I mean, have you noticed though, you know, just changes overall and how people in the state are feeling, you know, even people who may have, for whatever reason, voted for this guy because he was promising lower prices or whatever, whatever he was defrauding people with. So I think there's two, there's two things. Uh, so yes, I'm optimistic by nature. I'm noticing you're seeing these rallies, you're seeing these numbers.

You're seeing people step up and protest peacefully by the way. Uh, that to me is, uh, is very encouraging, uh, for our future. It makes me feel good that there's a buzz out there that we can't let this happen. But two things that really bothered me the last few weeks. Um, one is the Republican outside of Donald Trump, the Republican can't let this happen. But two things that really have bothered me the last few weeks. One is the Republican outside of Donald Trump, the Republican senators, congressmen, congresswomen, statewide officials, no one is pushing back. No one is stepping up and saying this is really screwed up. What is this guy doing? That to me is really not to sound naive, not one person is stepping up and saying,

this guy is having a fucking military parade for his birthday. What are we doing here? This guy is literally going into towns and separating people from their own kids and their own grandparents who've done nothing wrong. Not one Republican is stepping up and like shouting from the rooftops or even calmly saying,

hey, this is really out of line. This is not what the future of America looks like. This is not the way to maintain our status as the global democratic leader that we're supposed to be. Not one person. So, you know, am I optimistic? Am I encouraged by what we've seen the last few weeks from people who are pushing back on this regime? Yes, but I'm also really disheartened that you can't even get a little bit of courage from the other side, from a couple people to say this is totally out of line. This is really fundamentally dangerous. And it's the irony is, as you mentioned, is crazy. They don't want states to intervene. They don't want states to do this

and here they are I Don't know. I'm blown away by the by their ability to completely Change their point of view just because Donald Trump is an office and just because they're afraid of getting Primaried it's really horrifying. I want to ask you just one more topic while I have you here, because, you know, in the past, I think you and I had discussed this and here

we kind of are in this moment. We've heard a lot after the 2024 election about young men and young men, you know, being into this, you know, magosphere world and whatever, you know, being into this, you know, Magosphere world and whatever, you know, this Bro-osphere world of the bullying and the mocking of the trans community and mocking gay people. And, you know, I've always, you know,

made it a point here on the show to remind people, like, let me be very clear that that behavior is unacceptable. It's not cool. We should not be chasing that. I always thought the cool kid growing up was the person who punched back against the bully, who lifted people up, who helped marginalized communities, didn't hurt marginalized communities.

I wanna hear from your perspective. I mean, you're an athlete, and I'm sure you've heard that before. I just want to hear in this specific moment, because when I look at Trump, and I look at the people who surround who he's around, I look at them as losers, like I look at them as, as just as weak men as as weak and pathetic people who, who, you know, who are everything wrong with everything, I would just love to hear your thoughts on that. I couldn't agree more. And that's something that's very disconcerting to me.

I was a professional basketball player, although my wife and kids would say I'm not cool. I like to think I'm a relatively cool human being. And to your point, the people that I've always admired and looked up to, the people that are really cool and tough are the ones who stand up to bullies, are the ones that push back when someone makes fun of handicapped people or continues to exhibit race, racist undertones in almost every single speech he makes.

You know, Pete Hagseth is not cool to me. I believe in people who are effective, people who push back on bullies, people who do the right thing, people who stand by their convictions, people who fight for those who don't always have a voice fighting for them, and yeah it's true. There is a sort of male bravado to me, you know, this overweight, dorky guy who tans his skin a certain color and has this weird toupee-like haircut. What makes him cool? I don't get it. I really don't and guy who tans his skin a certain color and has this weird to pay like haircut what makes him cool? I don't get it. I really don't and more important than

that I was always raised that a character is the most important thing in the world and if you don't go to bed at night with character feeling good that you're making a positive difference in people's lives. That's the only thing that matters. So I never got it. I still don't get it. I think we need more guys to step up and push back on this. And again, it shouldn't matter whether you're a Democrat or Republican. If Donald Trump happened to be a Democrat and was doing this sort of thing, I would be pushing back just as hard. This is about the future of our democracy, the future of our planet, the future of our country. Again, my parents came to this country as immigrants. They believed in this country. And here we are, you know, kicking foreign students out, which we need now more than

ever. Here we are making it so that people are scared to go to the grocery store, scared to go visit family, scared to go to work. So not only is this fundamentally dangerous to the future of our country, it's also very damaging and the results will continue to play themselves out, very damaging to our economy. So there's a moral argument, there's an economic argument. We just need people to step up and push against someone who's really amounted to be just a dangerous bully.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexei Janulius, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks brothers, great to see you. You too. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store.mitustouch.com. All 100% USA Union made.