Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding federal immigration officers.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the arrival of state military troops in the Chicago region under orders from the current government, despite strong objections from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I will not yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What's next on the path to complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, National Guard units from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 80 kilometers from the city, as the administration pushes forward with its aggressive urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
The president has labeled Chicago a "crime-ridden disaster zone", even though police data indicate notable reductions in many offenses, including murders.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces preparing to mobilize, per reports. Authorities reportedly stated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would secure federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Soldiers in combat attire with state guard patches were spotted at the US army reserve center in the town. Vehicles marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were arranged in rows. Additional fencing was placed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for safety concerns until 6 December.
The administration has intensified deportation operations in the city in recent weeks, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action targeting the federal government, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, urging a court to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on the city and state, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".
A court hearing on their case is set for Thursday.
The mayor also issued an directive on that day prohibiting ICE officers and others from using municipal facilities as operation bases for deportation efforts.
The governor has charged the president of using troops as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "justify and make acceptable the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has said he would be prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch regular army in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are resisting federal law.
After beginning his new administration, the president has dispatched or discussed sending troops to over ten cities, including major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Data shows that most violent crime across the US has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were down nearly one-third to 278 through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on Wednesday revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the sending of military forces without an foreign danger.
