Ex-President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the detainment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for endangering Immigration agents!" Trump posted on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic party.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of state military troops in the Chicago region following directives from the current government, notwithstanding vehement protests from state officials such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump attempted to have a Black man unjustly detained," Johnson responded on that day. "I am staying put."
The governor responded via social platforms, stating: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward full-blown autocracy?"
As of midweek, National Guard troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration advances with its hardline urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite official statistics indicate significant drops in many offenses, including homicides.
On Wednesday, 200 Texas National Guard members were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard personnel readying for deployment, per sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would avoid police functions but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the military facility in the town. Trucks labeled "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were arranged in rows. Additional fencing was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in recent weeks, sparking protests, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government, attempting to halt the National Guard deployment, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "unlawful and risky".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is set for the next day.
The mayor also issued an executive order on Monday prohibiting ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has charged Trump of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, he said that Trump is attempting to "justify and normalize the deployment of armed soldiers under his personal authority."
The historic federal law restricts the military's role in civilian law enforcement. Yet, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a commander-in-chief to send active duty military in regions that are unable to suppress an uprising or are defying national authority.
Since starting his new administration, the president has sent or mentioned deploying troops to over ten urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is necessary to fight violence and defend immigration agents.
Statistics indicates that most violent crime nationwide 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 law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on that day revealed that most Americans oppose the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
