Ex-President Donald J. Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor belongs behind bars for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker as well!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic faction.
Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I will not back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives checking his power. What's next on the path to full-blown autocracy?"
As of midweek, military troops from the Lone Star State had arrived at the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though official statistics indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, including murders.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred state military personnel readying for deployment, per sources. Authorities indicated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure ICE officers and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Vehicles labeled "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were set up in lines. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered no-fly zones over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, sparking protests, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action targeting the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they call "the president's proclaimed 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "illegal and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is set for the next day.
The mayor also signed an executive order on Monday prohibiting federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for enforcement actions.
The governor has charged Trump of using troops as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "justify and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has said he would be willing to activate the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to dispatch regular army in regions that are failing to put down an uprising or are defying federal law.
Since starting his second term, Trump has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten cities, such as major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the armed forces is essential to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in the past few years. In Chicago, for example, homicides were reduced 31% to 278 through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll released on Wednesday revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the sending of military forces without an foreign danger.
