Springfield, IL (CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS) – The Illinois Accountability Commission is continuing to ramp up even as the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign in the Chicago region winds down, at least for now.

Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday announced the appointment of two new commissioners and additional staff to the independent commission he created via executive order last month. It is tasked with producing a public record of alleged abuses perpetrated by federal agents during “Operation Midway Blitz.” It will also examine the impact of such conduct on Illinois residents and communities and offer recommendations for accountability and reform. 

Pritzker appointed attorney Jimmy Arce, a former federal prosecutor who was involved in the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department; and Ric Estrada, the CEO of Metropolitan Family Services, which is one the state’s largest human services organizations. Eight commissioners have now been appointed. 

“Since I signed the executive order, with guidance from the commissioners, the Illinois Department of Human Rights has been diligently working to set the foundation for this truly ground-breaking work to bring accountability for the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement actions,” Pritzker said. “The appointments of Jimmy and Ric to the Commission round out this incredible team of public servants committed to demanding answers and the ongoing pursuit of justice for the people of Illinois.”

Staff also hired

The commission has also hired Hina Mahood, a former deputy chief of staff at the Department of Human Services who most recently was director of Illinois initiatives for the JB & MK Pritzker Family Foundation, as its executive director. 

The commission has also hired two attorneys with plans to hire more support staff in the coming weeks, the governor’s office said.

Pritzker announced the commission’s formation at the height of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement blitz, which the Department of Homeland Security claims — as of last month — resulted in the arrests of more than 3,300 people. 

But it also led to violent clashes between federal agents and protesters, often outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in suburban Broadview but also during enforcement operations in Chicago neighborhoods. Agents, including U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, often used riot control weapons like tear gas and pepper balls to disperse crowds.

While DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told Capitol News Illinois that the operation is “ongoing,” there is evidence that it quickly wound down last week, with Bovino leaving Chicago for North Carolina and taking many of his agents with him. 

And Trump administration lawyers told a federal judge earlier this week that only four detainees were being held in the Broadview facility, a stunning decline from testimony earlier this month of former detainees who described holding rooms stuffed with hundreds of people. 

However, the reprieve may be short-lived. The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that as many as 1,000 agents could hit the streets in March — four times the amount in town over the past two months.

Commission ramping up

The commission will ramp up its operations during the expected lull period.

Commissioners and staff have started outreach efforts, explored community partnerships and are conducting a “landscape analysis” of information already in the public domain to examine the impact of related and ongoing litigation, according to the governor’s office.  

But it’s still a work in progress. Pritzker notably encouraged people to document interactions with federal agents by taking videos with their phones. But on the commission’s website, there was still no method to submit such evidence directly to the commission as of Thursday afternoon. Instead, people are encouraged to contact a hotline operated by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an outside group.

“The commission will provide updates to the public if there are other avenues to share information,” the website states. 

Beyond that, the website lists information about the commissioners and executive staff, the language of the executive order that created it, links to news releases about it and links directing people to legal help and information about their rights when interacting with law enforcement. 

Pritzker’s executive order also explicitly calls for the commission to hold public hearings to document the conduct of federal officials. But no information is yet available about when those will be held or how members of the public can participate. 

The commission has been tasked with providing an initial report on its findings and recommendations to Pritzker no later than Jan. 31. A final report will be issued no later than April 30, 2026.

The commission’s website can be found at https://ilac.illinois.gov/. 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.