Hearing underway as 500 National Guard troops deploy to Chicago area

About 500 National Guard troops from Texas and Illinois were deployed to the Chicago area and mobilized to protect federal agents and facilities amid a legal battle over their deployment.

According to the Department of Defense’s U.S. Northern Command, approximately 200 soldiers from the Texas National Guard and 300 Illinois National Guard troops were “employed in the greater Chicago area.” Their mobilization will last for at least 60 days.

“These forces will protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who perform federal functions, including federal law enforcement, and protect federal property,” Northern Command said in a statement.

The troops are stationed at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in southwest suburban Elwood, where new fencing has been installed since Texas Guardsmen arrived Tuesday. Crews also installed privacy screens along the inside of the existing fence.

Several trailers have been set up at the facility as a temporary living space. Several soldiers were seen moving in with bags full of belongings on Tuesday; some holding rifles and folding chairs, possibly for meetings or other training.

Northern Command said that as part of their duties to protect federal agents and installations, troops would be tasked with establishing security perimeters, crowd control and using de-escalation tactics. Although troops would be allowed to temporarily detain people to prevent assault or interference with federal agents, Northern Command said it would not arrest protesters.

There were a handful of protests outside the facility Wednesday; a couple to protest the arrival of the Texas guards, and a few others to support them.

Illinois state leaders said they only learned Monday evening that all 200 Texas National Guard troops would be stationed at the Elwood base starting Tuesday.

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Richard Hayes was the highest-ranking member of the Illinois National Guard. In his more than 30-year career, he said he has never seen another state’s National Guard federalized and then sent to another state.

“It’s new. It doesn’t mean it’s necessarily illegal, it’s just different,” he said. “As far as the soldiers go, the Illinois National Guard, even the Texas National Guard, they have no say in whether they go or not. It’s not a political organization, they’re just there to do what they’re asked to do.”

There has been little movement in or out of the training center since the troops arrived, and CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller said he wasn’t surprised.

The question remains whether troops will be sent there to provide protection, since the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard. Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have maintained there is no crisis requiring troop presence in the Chicago area.

Federal Judge April Perry scheduled a hearing for Thursday to discuss arguments on a request for a temporary restraining order blocking the troop deployment. Perry declined to immediately issue that restraining order Monday when the lawsuit was filed to give the feds time to file its briefs, which it did, minutes before the 11:59 p.m. CDT Wednesday deadline she had set.

In the 59-page filing, the government argues that President Trump has the legal authority to deploy the troops and that state objections should not block the operation. Federal lawyers also argued that courts should show “great deference” when reviewing a president’s judgment on such matters, in light of the authority they say is given to the executive branch by the Constitution and statutes.

Miller said it’s likely executives will wait for the judge’s ruling before taking action.

“Oh, absolutely. I mean, the judge didn’t explicitly say that they couldn’t come to the city, but I think if you read between the lines of what she says, it would probably be a good idea if everyone waited until she made the decision on Thursday to decide what they’re actually going to do,” Miller said.

Miller said he expects the judge to grant the temporary restraining order barring the deployment for now, but that any decision will likely be appealed to a higher court.

A federal judge in Oregon blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard units to Portland. That judge ruled that the relatively small protests outside the Portland Immigration Processing Center did not justify the use of federalized forces and that allowing the deployment could harm the sovereignty of the state of Oregon.

Since that decision, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has called on U.S. Northern Command to demobilize the 200 Oregon National Guard troops and 200 California National Guard troops the Trump administration had mobilized for Portland.

Mr. Trump suggested that, regardless of what happens in court, he could invoke the Insurrection Act “if necessary” to deploy troops to Portland and Chicago.

“If people were being killed and the courts were holding us back, or the governors or the mayors were holding us back, of course I would do it. I mean, I want to make sure that no one gets killed,” he said earlier this week.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said for the president to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify deploying troops “would be terrible.”

“It would be illegal and unconstitutional, because there is no legal basis for his invasion with these troops from Texas into the state of Illinois. He does not make our state better, and he does not make it safer,” Durbin said.

Nicole Sganga and

Asal Rezaei

contributed to this report.