Texas National Guard troops have arrived in the Chicago area, marking an escalation of Donald Trump’s crackdown on the city.
Chicago has already seen an increase in immigration enforcement in recent weeks, as well as increasingly violent altercations in suburban Broadview, where law enforcement was filmed deploying tear gas and pepper spray against protesters.
The latest military presence comes after April Perry, a U.S. district judge, refused to immediately block troops from entering the city amid a pending lawsuit by the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago over the Trump administration’s actions.
Kwame Raoul, Illinois’ attorney general, filed the lawsuit Monday seeking to block Trump from recruiting the state’s National Guard or sending troops from other states such as Texas “immediately and permanently.”
But after Perry’s decision, troops were mobilized Monday, and several outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and New York Times, confirmed they remained in the Chicago area Tuesday.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also signed an executive order banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from operating on city-owned property, the third executive order attempting to limit the power of the city’s ICE agents since Trump first signaled the deployment.
“City property and reluctant private businesses will no longer serve as staging grounds for these raids,” Johnson said when signing the order Monday. “The fact is, we can’t allow them to run amok in our city without checks and balances. No one is above the law…if Congress doesn’t check this administration, then Chicago will.”
The White House accused the mayor of “aiding and abetting criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, traffickers and gang bangers,” Newsweek reported.
Illinois officials have long condemned the Trump administration’s plans for a federal takeover. Pritzker previously called on Trump to “stand up” over the intervention during an interview with CBS News in September.
“Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there’s an insurrection, unless there’s really an emergency,” Pritzker said, adding, “I’m going to do everything I can to stop him from taking away people’s rights and using the military to invade the states.”
Johnson also loudly condemned the planned intervention since it was first reported. At a Labor Day rally, he told a protest in the city: “We are going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago. We will protect the humanity of every person in the city of Chicago.”
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin condemned the move in a statement released as troops arrived in the state.
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“The deployment of the Texas National Guard, over the objections of Illinois elected officials, is not only unnecessary, but it is also illegal,” he said. “National Guard personnel do not deserve to be used as political pawns in President Trump’s political theater.”
Trump had signaled federal intervention in Chicago, amid his targeting of Democratic-led cities for expanded federal immigration enforcement.
Trump has repeatedly tried to deploy federal troops to Portland, but a federal judge blocked his latest efforts on Sunday. Tina Kotek, the governor of Oregon, denounced any military intervention in the state as a “threat to our democracy” as well as a “wake-up call” for other state officials, in recent comments to NPR.
In June, the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles, where ICE agents carried out large-scale raids. Trump also deployed thousands of National Guard troops and sent federal agents to Washington DC in August, as part of his unprecedented takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital.
Trump said the moves were necessary to help with immigration enforcement and fight crime. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders locally and across the country have emphasized that crime levels are generally falling.
