Former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for endangering Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks come alongside the arrival of National Guard troops in the Chicago region under orders from the current government, notwithstanding vehement protests from Illinois authorities including the governor and mayor.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I am staying put."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I refuse to yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the path to full-blown autocracy?"
As of midweek, National Guard units from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, an army base approximately 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration advances with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though official statistics indicate significant drops in many offenses, including homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred state military forces readying for deployment, per reports. Authorities indicated the soldiers would avoid police functions but would protect ICE officers and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks labeled "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were set up in lines. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over the military base for security reasons until early December.
The administration has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, triggering demonstrations, particularly near an immigration center in Broadview.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit targeting the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and risky".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is set for Thursday.
The mayor also signed an directive on that day prohibiting ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has accused Trump of using military forces as "political props" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that the president is trying to "justify and normalize the deployment of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, the president has said 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 defying federal law.
Since starting his second term, the president has sent or discussed deploying troops to at least 10 urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Statistics shows that serious offenses nationwide has declined in the past few years. In the city, for instance, homicides were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll released on that day found that most Americans oppose the deployment of troops without an foreign danger.
