On January 30, the Illini Republicans, the registered student organization of the Republican Party at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), posted a statement on social media calling for the assassination of political opponents. In particular the post celebrated the killings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents during protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota and threatened that other opponents of President Donald Trump’s government ought to likewise be murdered. 

The Instagram post included a graphic depicting the assassination of Pretti with the text “Only Traitors Help Invaders.” Along with the image, the Illini Republicans wrote a statement steeped in white supremacist language saying that immigrants are “incompatible with Western civilization.” 

They continued stating that, “Traitors such as Alex Pretti and Renée Nicole Good had voided their liberties” and that, “It is… the mandate of our brave public servants, domestic and abroad, to fell the enemies of the United States of America.” 

The statement is an open call for violence, including the targeted political assassination of those who defend the democratic right of immigrants. That it was posted the same day that hundreds of UIUC and local high school students walked out of class to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) clearly indicates the statement was intended to intimidate and threaten demonstrators. 

A Reddit post to r/UIUC in the aftermath of the incident, titled “Specific ways which Illini Republicans likely violated student code of conduct,” documents a long history of support for white supremacy and Christian nationalism from the Illini Republicans. 

Instances included: 

• Sharing posts from Charlie Kirk promoting the neo-nazi “Great Replacement Theory,” 

• Posting a quote from Pat Buchanan, an advisor to the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, referencing “blood and soil,” and 

• Screenshots from a group chat where the president of the Illini Republicans posted statements against New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for being “anti-white” 

  Messages about celebrating Christopher Columbus for having brought Christianity to “the aimless and unenlightened inhabitants of South America” and decrying the renaming of Columbus Day for supposedly “pitting the other races, even members of the white race itself, against white Europeans.” 

After Friday’s post ignited anger from UIUC students, the university administration posted an official statement alluding that no disciplinary action will be taken against the fascist student organization. The University stated that while a Title VI report had been filed to review the incident, the Illini Republicans “are responsible for managing their own affairs, and their social media accounts represent their own views, not those of the university… but the university cannot discipline them for the viewpoint or content of protected speech.” 

The University of Illinois administration’s claim that it cannot discipline the Illini Republicans is a fraud. It is a cowardly defense of fascistic incitement that stands in total contradiction to the university’s actual record.

Over the past two years, the university has carried out a systematic campaign to suppress student protests against the Gaza genocide. It has proven that it is perfectly willing to punish “viewpoints” when those views challenge the interests of US imperialism.

In 2024, the administration oversaw the official termination of the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). It has also utilized aggressive disciplinary measures to hand down long-term suspensions and de facto expulsions against anti-genocide activists.

In one instance, when students organized a peaceful encampment on the Quad, the university worked with local prosecutors to level felony “mob action” charges against eight protesters, threatening them with years in prison.

The university further codified this repression through its “Expressive Activity” policy. These rules established arbitrary noise limits and bans on unapproved structures specifically designed to criminalize the methods used by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The University’s selective defense of “free speech” for the far right, while criminalizing the left, is an expression of the political complicity of the Democratic Party in Trump’s immigration raids and his plans to establish a fascist dictatorship. The UIUC administration is an appendage of the state Democratic Party and the administration of Governor J.B. Pritzker.

All nine voting members of the Board of Trustees are appointed directly by the governor. This includes Board Chair Jesse Ruiz, a longtime Democratic operative who previously served as Pritzker’s Deputy Governor for Education. In May 2025, Pritzker even appointed his own brother-in-law, Bryan Traubert, to the board.

This alignment demonstrates that the Democratic Party will not fight against fascism. On the contrary, the Democrats are defending the right of Republicans to threaten violence while leading the charge to strip left-wing students of their basic democratic rights.

The open call for assassination by the Illini Republicans is a desperate response to the growing radicalization of the youth. These fascistic groups do not represent a mass movement, but are the foot soldiers for a ruling class that has completely abandoned democratic forms of rule. There is mass and growing opposition among workers and young people to the ICE murder and Trump’s developing dictatorship. However, this power remains latent as long as it is tied to the dead end of the Democratic Party.

The defense of democratic rights and the defeat of the fascist threat cannot be left to the Democratic Party or any section of the ruling class. It requires the independent political mobilization of the working class and the construction of a mass socialist movement.