Ex-President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the detainment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of state military personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, despite vehement protests from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I will not yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate significant drops in many offenses, such as homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred state military forces preparing to mobilize, per reports. Authorities reportedly stated the troops would avoid law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers in combat attire with state guard insignia were observed at the US army reserve center in the town. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" delivered portable toilets and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in lines. Additional fencing was installed around the perimeter.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
The administration has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in the past month, sparking protests, particularly near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action targeting the administration, attempting to halt the National Guard deployment, asking a court to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and risky".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also signed an executive order on that day 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 "political props" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is trying to "justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has said he would be prepared to activate the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying national authority.
Since starting his second term, the president has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten cities, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is essential to combat crime and protect immigration agents.
Data shows that serious offenses across the US has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for instance, murders were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, per police data.
A recent poll published on that day found that most Americans disapprove of the deployment of military forces without an external threat.
