Illinois Republican legislators have had enough of footing the bill for the state’s sanctuary state status. One Republican state legislator introduced a bill to limit the flow of illegal aliens into Illinois.

State Rep. Norine Hammond introduced the bill.

“One of the biggest problems we are facing right now, both from a budgetary and a humanity perspective, is the ongoing crisis at our southern border and the influx of undocumented immigrants into Illinois,” Hammond said. “Yesterday, we filed House Bill 4187 to repeal the Illinois Trust Act and end our status as a sanctuary state.”

Illinois law prohibits state and local law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities to enforce immigration law, if that’s the only reason for enforcement against someone.

Progressive Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, when asked about the bill, responded that he is focused on getting the illegal aliens who arrive in Chicago the things that they need. “We are absolutely focused on assisting the city and making sure we are doing everything we can for new brick and mortar shelters that we can provide,” Pritzker said.

Sure. Just build more shelters. That’s the ticket. Pritzker doesn’t make the connection between the state’s sanctuary status and the incentive for “asylum seekers” arriving in the city. He separates them from the illegal aliens already in Chicago. That’s an odd flex yet that his how he rationalizes maintaining the status quo.

Rep. Hammond wants the governor to address the cost of providing services to care for illegal aliens. She said Chicago taxpayers will likely spend $361M toward illegal aliens in 2023. The state projects it will spend $400M on illegal aliens in fiscal year 2023. As things stand now, Illinois is preparing to pause a program that provides taxpayer-subsidized health care to illegal aliens. That program is reaching $831.6M in taxpayer costs.

Chicago has maintained sanctuary city status for more than 38 years, through the administrations of five mayors. Current Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that the city will continue to welcome anyone, regardless of legal status.

Former Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order on March 7, 1985, that prohibited any city employee from asking about or assisting an investigation of the “citizenship or residency status of any person” unless ordered to by a court or federal law. In addition, the order prevented city benefits from being denied to anyone because of their citizenship status.

Washington, a Democrat, issued the order to protest the decision by the administration of President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, to direct federal officials to question people seeking city services about whether they are citizens and conduct random searches of city records to identify undocumented immigrants.

Color me skeptical that anything will change with either the state or Chicago’s sanctuary policies, especially as a presidential election approaches. You notice it is a Republican and not a Democrat that introduced the bill. Democrats like Mayor Johnson will squawk about the flood of illegal aliens that are coming into Chicago and whine about the lack of federal support, yet they will not admit that sanctuary city and state status are a magnet to encourage illegal immigration. They just want more money to continue their policies. Illinois is under Democrat leadership. Pritzker has presidential ambitions. He won’t do anything to change the state’s policy now.