Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the detainment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of National Guard troops in the Windy City area under orders from the current government, notwithstanding vehement protests from state officials such as the governor and mayor.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump attempted to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I'm not going anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I refuse to yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of democratically chosen representatives checking his power. What remains on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard units from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its hardline crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, including murders.
That day, two hundred Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the region, with another 300 state military forces readying for deployment, per sources. Officials indicated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure ICE officers and government buildings.
Soldiers in combat attire with state guard patches were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Vehicles marked "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were arranged in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in the past month, triggering demonstrations, especially near an processing facility in Broadview.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action targeting the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for the next day.
The mayor also signed an executive order on that day banning ICE officers and related personnel 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 Trump is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has stated he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to dispatch regular army in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his new administration, Trump has sent or discussed deploying military units to over ten cities, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the military presence is necessary to fight violence and defend immigration agents.
Data shows that most violent crime nationwide has declined in recent years. In the city, for instance, homicides were reduced nearly one-third to 278 through late summer, per police data.
A recent poll released on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the sending of troops without an external threat.
