Protesters gathered outside Illinois governor JB Pritzker’s mansion on Wednesday thinking that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was holding a presser around the property. 

Secretary Noem did hold a press conference in Illinois on Wednesday, but it was more than half a mile away from the governor’s mansion, leaving the protesters “screaming” into the wind. 

“While we aren’t entirely sure what the protesters were protesting (we aren’t sure they know either), or why they were screaming in front of their governor’s mansion, we stand with every victim of illegal immigrant crime,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital.

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“Secretary Noem went to Springfield, Illinois to join Angel families to call for the end of dangerous sanctuary city policies under J.B. Pritzker and bring attention to an at-large illegal alien murderer who has been evading justice for two years for the stabbing of Emma Shafer.” 

As protesters shouted outside Pritzker’s mansion, Noem’s presser was held at the site where Emma Shafer, 24, was stabbed to death by Grabriel Calixto Pichardo, 25, an illegal migrant who is wanted on three first-degree murder charges and an aggravated domestic battery charge. Pichardo was reportedly dating Shafer at the time of the murder. 

Noem was also joined by the “Angel families” of Denny McCann and Jimmy Walden, who both lost their lives to illegal migrant crime. 

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McCann was crossing the street on foot when he was hit, killed, and dragged down the road by Saul Chavez, an illegal immigrant who was drunk driving. Chavez was arrested and charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI, but disappeared for 11 years after being released on bond. He wasn’t apprehended until 2022.  

Walden was killed when an illegal alien, who had previously been deported twice, crashed into Walden’s motorcycle in Maryland. His father lives in Illinois. 

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The purpose of the presser was to spotlight the sanctuary status of the state, and to call on the potential presidential candidate to “abandon these dangerous sanctuary policies.”

Pritzker responded to the presser with a statement on Wednesday.

“Unlike Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, Illinois follows the law,” the Illinois governor explained. “The Trump Administration is violating the United States Constitution, denying people due process, and disappearing law-abiding neighbors – including children who are U.S. citizens. Yet, they are taking no real action to promote public safety and deport violent criminals within the clear and defined legal process.”

“Illinoisans are sending a clear message to Trump’s lackeys that we will not let you mess with us without a resistance,” Pritzker concluded.

The governor’s office alleged that Secretary Noem changed her schedule to dodge protesters. Matt Hill, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement that “despite being in Illinois today and falsely accusing the state of not following the law, Secretary Noem and her team does not communicate with the State of Illinois about enforcing immigration laws.”

“As the Governor’s office oversees the Governor’s Mansion, we know the Secretary originally planned her publicity stunt at the Governor’s home but decided to relocate,” Hill said. “We would have hoped she wouldn’t be scared to speak with Illinoisans exercising their Constitutional rights but are not surprised given her lack of ability to follow the Constitution.”

Pritzker’s office also sent a statement from Cathy Schwartz and John Shafer, Emma Shafer’s parents, to Fox News Digital which addressed Noem holding the presser at the site their daughter was killed.

“To see her used by Secretary Noem and others to advance a cruel and heartless political agenda is not just deeply painful to us – it is an insult to her memory. Noem’s words are in direct conflict with who Emma was as a person,” the parents’ statement via the governor’s office read. “No parent should have to experience the loss of a child. But every time her name is brought into these conversations – conversations she would have wanted nothing to do with – we have to relive the pain of her death.”

Schwartz and Shafer were unavailable to speak with Fox News Digital at the time of publication. 

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in an earlier statement that “the Trump Administration will bring illegal immigrants who perpetrate crimes to justice.”

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston