From peaceful southern Illinois, Chicago can look like a crime-ridden hellhole that welcomes far too many asylum seekers and pushes the state off a financial cliff into a $3.2 billion deficit.
It’s no surprise that Illinois lost 83,839 residents in 2023, its tenth straight year of decline — as people and businesses flee across state lines in search of lower taxes and less red tape.
Now separatists say rural counties should say goodbye to Chicago and surrounding Cook County and forge the state of “New Illinois.”
Their mantra is: ‘Leave Illinois without moving.’
American history is littered with examples of states and counties trying to redraw maps—and usually doomed to failure.
But Illinois separatists have the wind in their sails after winning nonbinding ballot resolutions in 33 of the state’s 102 counties.
Neighboring Indiana took notice and offered to expand its western border and absorb disaffected parts of Illinois.
New Illinois State Chairman GH Merritt says she expects Illinois will soon “crash and burn” as a result of the progressive tax and spending policies of Chicago’s political elite.
Southern Illinois residents want to say goodbye to Chicago, with its crime, homelessness and immigration problems

Staunton’s 5,000 residents are among those who could choose to join the ‘New Illinois State’
“A lot of businesses have left the state,” Merritt told DailyMail.com.
“They’re leaving Chicago because it’s dangerous and the taxes are too high. In just a few years we have lost a million inhabitants.’
Those who leave often point to Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, whose abysmal approval ratings have made him “America’s most hated mayor.”
He has struggled to accommodate the tens of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers who showed up in Chicago looking for jobs, homes and schools after crossing the southern border.
Others condemn Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker for running a $3.2 billion deficit in his 2026 budget and overseeing a staggering $144 billion in pension debt, according to an Illinois Policy think tank.
Critics note that Pritzker only won his 2022 election with victories in the heavily weighted counties around Chicago.
Illinois is ‘on the brink of bankruptcy,’ Merritt warns.
“If we can’t deliver on New Illinois, you’re going to see a lot more people leaving Illinois and going to states where they think they’ll have a voice.”
It’s not clear that New Illinois would have better finances after jettisoning Cook County.
Chicago is surrounded by several wealthy blue counties — and their taxes subsidize poorer areas in the South, says research from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
The separatist movement was launched in 2018 but has begun to make real progress in recent months.

The state’s Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker insists that Illinois is and will remain “one state.”

Voters in Madison County, a metropolitan area and suburb of St. Louis, approved the symbolic referendum

Separatists have received support from voters for ballot initiatives in 33 of the 102 provinces
It mirrors efforts in Colorado, California and Oregon, where large swathes of red, rural counties are dominated by a few blue cities.
The divide between urban and rural America has long been a fault line in the world’s largest economy.
President-elect Donald Trump stoked tensions on the campaign trail when he railed against major Democratic-led cities.
Now animated separatist groups see his second government as friendly to the sparsely populated red areas pushed by metropolitan liberals.
Late last year, Merritt’s group adopted the first draft of a new constitution, and counts support in 68 provinces.
A sister organization, Illinois Separation Referendum, has received voter support for ballot initiatives in 33 counties.
In November, even Madison County, a metropolitan area and suburb of St. Louis, approved the symbolic referendum on splitting off from the Chicago area and forming a new state.
Still, it’s a difficult process that requires the consent of the state legislature and Congress, according to the U.S. Constitution.
It has only happened a handful of times, including the formation of Kentucky, with the consent of Virginia, and Maine, which was once part of Massachusetts.
The most recent example was West Virginia, which left Virginia during the Civil War – 162 years ago.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is struggling to accommodate the tens of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers showing up in Chicago

Separatists say they want to redraw the maps and ‘leave Illinois without moving’
Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia have since championed the idea of becoming a 51st state.
Meanwhile, Texas, California and several other states are trying to secede completely from the US.
In Oregon, a group called Greater Idaho wants to redraw the state’s borders so that eastern conservative rural counties can join Idaho.
Although Illinois separatists have the support of a dozen lawmakers, they have little support among elites in Chicago and Springfield, the state capital.
“We are one state,” Governor Pritzker told reporters before last year’s election.
“The idea that somewhere in Illinois wants to kick out another place in Illinois should not be on the ballot.”
This month, politics in Illinois became messier again, with neighboring Indiana joining the unrest.
Republicans in Indianapolis introduced a bill to create a boundary commission to redraw the state’s borders and absorb disaffected parts of Illinois.
It would “embrace neighboring counties that want to join low-cost Indiana,” the bill says.
Indiana Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said, “Instead of seceding and creating a 51st state, they should just join us.”
But even with support from Indiana, that effort would have to win over Springfield and Washington, D.C. — still a long shot.
Pritzker has dismissed Indiana’s move as a “stunt” and advised its residents against joining a “low-wage state” with few worker protections and poor health care.

From peaceful southern Illinois, shooting investigations like these can make Chicago look like a crime-ridden hellhole

GH Merritt Says Debt-Riddled Illinois Will ‘Crash and Burn’ in Just Three Years

Still, for Merritt, who lives near Chicago in Lake County, it’s more a matter of how much of Illinois Indiana would be willing to absorb.
“If it worked, I’d say ‘great,'” she told DailyMail.com.
“But I wouldn’t want Indiana to take over 33 counties in southeastern Illinois because that would leave the rest of us behind.”