Former President Donald J. Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for endangering Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the arrival of National Guard troops in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, despite strong objections from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Johnson responded on that day. "I am staying anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, stating: "I will not back down. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What's next on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government advances with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite official statistics indicate significant drops in many offenses, including murders.
That day, two hundred Texas National Guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred state military forces readying for deployment, per sources. Authorities reportedly stated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would protect ICE officers and government buildings.
Military personnel in combat attire with state guard insignia were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Vehicles marked "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were arranged in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the compound.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
The administration has escalated immigration enforcement in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering protests, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action against the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they call "the president's proclaimed 'War'" on the city and state, labeling it "unlawful and risky".
A court hearing on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also signed an directive on that day prohibiting federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as operation bases for deportation efforts.
The governor has accused Trump of using military forces as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
During a press briefing on the previous day, he said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has stated he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a commander-in-chief to send regular army in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his new administration, the president has sent or discussed deploying troops to over ten urban centers, including major metropolitan areas and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the military presence is essential to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Statistics shows that most violent crime across the US has declined in the past few years. In the city, for example, homicides were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, per police data.
New survey data published on Wednesday revealed that the majority of US citizens oppose the deployment of troops without an external threat.
