Trump Demands Imprisonment of Windy City Mayor and Illinois Governor as Military Forces Deploy in City
Former President Donald Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago region under orders from the current government, despite strong objections from state officials such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump has sought to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
The governor responded via social platforms, declaring: "I refuse to yield. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from the Lone Star State had arrived at the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its hardline urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite police data indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, including murders.
That day, 200 state guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces readying for deployment, per reports. Authorities indicated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Vehicles labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off portable toilets and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in rows. Additional fencing was placed around the compound.
Aviation authorities ordered flight restrictions over the military base for safety concerns until 6 December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in the past month, triggering protests, especially near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, state and city initiated legal action targeting the administration, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'War'" on the city and state, calling it "unlawful and risky".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for the next day.
The mayor also signed an executive order on Monday banning ICE officers and others from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
The governor has charged the president of using troops as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
During a press briefing on the previous day, Pritzker said that the president is trying to "rationalize and make acceptable the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has stated he would be prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to send active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his new administration, the president has dispatched or mentioned sending military units to at least 10 cities, including major metropolitan areas and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the military presence is essential to fight violence and protect ICE officers.
Data indicates that serious offenses across the US has declined in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, per police data.
New survey data published on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the deployment of troops without an foreign danger.
