Trump Calls for Imprisonment of Windy City Mayor and State Executive as Military Forces Arrive in Metropolis
Ex-President Donald J. Trump on midweek demanded the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic party.
Trump's statements come alongside the deployment of state military personnel in the Windy City area following directives from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from Texas had reached the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", even though official statistics indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, including homicides.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard members were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred state military personnel preparing to mobilize, per reports. Officials indicated the soldiers would avoid law enforcement duties but would secure ICE officers and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were observed at the US army reserve center in the town. Vehicles marked "Disaster Relief" delivered portable toilets and essential items. Mobile units were arranged in rows. Additional fencing was installed around the compound.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
The administration has escalated immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, sparking demonstrations, especially near an immigration center in Broadview.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action targeting the federal government, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, labeling it "illegal and risky".
Legal proceedings on their case is set for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also issued an executive order on Monday banning federal immigration agents and others from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
The governor has charged the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and normalize the presence of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to activate the emergency powers, which allows a president to send active duty military in states that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting national authority.
Since starting his new administration, the president has dispatched or discussed deploying military units to over ten cities, such as major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Statistics shows that most violent crime nationwide has declined in recent years. In Chicago, for example, murders were down 31% to under three hundred through August, per law enforcement reports.
A recent poll released on Wednesday found that most Americans disapprove of the deployment of troops without an foreign danger.