Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of state military personnel in the Chicago region following directives from the current government, notwithstanding strong objections from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Johnson responded on that day. "I'm not going put."
The governor responded via social platforms, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward complete authoritarianism?"
As of midweek, military troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base roughly 50 miles from the city, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", even though police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, including homicides.
That day, two hundred Texas National Guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with another 300 Illinois guard personnel readying for deployment, according to reports. Authorities reportedly stated the troops would avoid police functions but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were arranged in rows. Extra barriers was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until 6 December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in the past month, sparking protests, particularly near an processing facility in Broadview.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on the city and state, calling it "illegal and risky".
A court hearing on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also issued an executive order on that day banning federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has charged Trump of using troops as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and normalize the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to activate the emergency powers, which permits a commander-in-chief to dispatch regular army in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are defying federal law.
After beginning his new administration, the president has sent or mentioned deploying military units to over ten cities, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and protect immigration agents.
Data shows that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in the past few years. In Chicago, for example, homicides were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on Wednesday revealed that most Americans oppose the deployment of military forces without an external threat.
