🔗 Share this article

Former President Donald Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.

"Chicago's Mayor belongs behind bars for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor too!"

The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.

Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of National Guard personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, despite vehement protests from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.

"This represents yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."

The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward full-blown authoritarianism?"

By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, an army base roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its hardline urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.

The president has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite official statistics indicate notable reductions in many offenses, including murders.

That day, two hundred state guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces preparing to mobilize, per reports. Officials indicated the troops would not perform police functions but would protect federal immigration agents and government buildings.

Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard patches were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered portable toilets and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in lines. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.

The Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.

Federal authorities has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in recent weeks, sparking protests, especially near an processing facility in Broadview.

On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".

Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is set for the next day.

Mayor Johnson also issued an executive order on that day banning ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.

The governor has accused the president of using troops as "staged tools" and "pawns".

At a news conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his direct command."

The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. However, the president has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to send regular army in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are resisting national authority.

Since starting his new administration, Trump has sent or mentioned deploying military units to at least 10 urban centers, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and protect immigration agents.

Statistics shows that serious offenses nationwide has declined in recent years. In the city, for example, murders were reduced nearly one-third to 278 through August, per police data.

A recent poll released on Wednesday found that most Americans oppose the deployment of military forces without an foreign danger.