Hundreds of US National Guard troops arrive in Chicago
Hundreds of Texas National Guard troops have arrived at a military training center near Chicago to support US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Trump called Chicago a “war zone,” following recent protests against federal immigration agents in the third-largest U.S. city.
The deployment comes despite opposition from local authorities. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused the Trump administration of an “authoritarian march” and said the state would “use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab.”
Sources told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that some troops could begin their mission as early as Wednesday.
CBS also reported that trailers had been set up as temporary housing at the Army Reserve Training Center, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.
A fence was also installed around the training center Tuesday evening.
Local officials said they had received few details about troop assignments.
Trump says the use of troops is necessary to quell violence in Democratic-controlled cities, crack down on crime and support his deportation initiatives.
National Guard troops have limited power. They do not enforce the law or carry out arrests, seizures or searches. Rather, their role is to protect federal agents and property.
Trump has already sent guards to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and ordered them into Memphis and Portland.
A federal judge, however, temporarily barred troops from deploying to Portland. Another judge allowed the Chicago deployment for now.
Chicago has seen an increase in protests against immigration enforcement in the city, with most of them taking place in front of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
Last weekend, U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and injured a woman after a group of people rammed cars into immigration vehicles — although local media reported that her lawyer disputed parts of the government’s version of events.
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in the lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago — who are suing to prevent their state’s and Texas’ National Guard troops from being federalized or placed under the president’s control.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told BBC News on Tuesday that doing so, “literally picking members of the National Guard from another state, the state of Texas, and then sending them to the state of Illinois, is illegal, unconstitutional and dangerous.”
On Monday, Johnson signed an executive order banning ICE agents from operating on city-owned property.
These deployments have raised both legal and constitutional questions, as National Guard troops are typically deployed by a state’s governor and century-old laws limit the government’s use of the military for domestic affairs.
Trump has said he would consider invoking an even older law, the Insurrection Act, if federal courts halt the deployment of National Guard troops in U.S. cities.
The 1807 Act authorizes a U.S. president to use active-duty military personnel to perform domestic law enforcement functions.
Asked about it Tuesday in the Oval Office, Trump referenced Chicago and said that “if the governor can’t do the job, we will.”
