On Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Secretary Kristi Noem would be visiting Springfield the following morning to tout her “Making America Safe Again” agenda and speak out against Gov. JB Pritzker’s immigration policies and Illinois’ status as a sanctuary state. No time or location for her press conference was publicized, but it was believed that she would make an appearance in front of the Governor’s Mansion at 10 a.m.
The Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Network, Illinois State AFL-CIO, 50501 Illinois and other activist groups began encouraging their supporters to show up and stage a counterprotest. A crowd gathered in front of the Governor’s Mansion this morning, many with signs and some with their faces obscured to conceal their identities, but Noem did not appear.
Instead, the press conference took place near the apartment building on Eighth Street where Emma Shafer, 24, was killed in July 2023. Her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Calixto Pichardo, who was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. as a child with his mother, has been charged with three counts of murder in Shafer’s death but not taken into custody. Law enforcement has said they believe he fled to Mexico after the killing. Pichardo was granted DACA status as a teenager, but at the time of Shafer’s death it had expired and he was no longer eligible for DACA due to a previous felony conviction.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias held a press conference across from the Governor’s Mansion at 10:30 a.m. in response to Noem’s visit.
“The combination of cowardice, incompetence and cruelty is a very scary mix,” Giannoulias said. “So while I’m glad she’s not here, we need to step up as as a society, as a country and as a democracy to monsters like Kristi Noem.”