Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the incarceration of 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 failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic faction.
Trump's statements come alongside the arrival of National Guard personnel in the Chicago region following directives from the current government, despite strong objections from Illinois authorities including the governor and mayor.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I am staying put."
The governor responded via social platforms, stating: "I refuse to yield. Trump is now demanding arrests of democratically chosen representatives checking his power. What's next on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard units from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration advances with its hardline urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has labeled Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite official statistics indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as murders.
That day, 200 Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces preparing to mobilize, per sources. Officials indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would protect federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were spotted at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered portable toilets and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in rows. Extra barriers was placed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the military base for security reasons until 6 December.
The administration has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in recent weeks, sparking demonstrations, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, state and city filed a lawsuit targeting the administration, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, asking a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, calling it "illegal and dangerous".
A court hearing on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also issued an executive order on Monday banning ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has accused the president of using troops as "political props" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that the president is trying to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The historic federal law limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to activate the emergency powers, which allows a president to send active duty military in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are defying national authority.
Since starting his new administration, the president has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten urban centers, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and defend immigration agents.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in recent years. In Chicago, for instance, murders were reduced 31% to under three hundred through late summer, according to police data.
New survey data published on that day revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
