Trump urges jail for Illinois, Chicago leaders

Protesters in Chicago demonstrate against President Donald Trump's National Guard, ICE deployments (Image credit: Octavio Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

The Texas National Guard began operations in the Chicago area Wednesday night, the Pentagon said, as about 1,000 demonstrators marched down Michigan Avenue to protest the deployment and the aggressive, sometimes violent, federal immigration operations around the city. Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump said on social media that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) “should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers,” echoing a claim from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Who said what

“This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested,” Johnson said on social media. “I’m not going anywhere.” In an interview on MSNBC, Pritzker called Trump a “wannabe dictator,” adding: “If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me.”

Roughly 500 National Guard troops — 200 from Texas, 300 from Illinois — are gathered at a military base outside Chicago, and their mission isn’t clear. Pritzker said nobody had informed him what they will be doing. A U.S. Northern Command spokesperson said Wednesday night the Guard members had begun “actively protecting federal personnel and property.” White House spokespeople have frequently suggested the troops will help fight violent crime, but Trump and Noem have described the Guard deployments as aimed at furthering the administration’s less-popular mass deportation effort.

What next?

A federal judge has blocked Trump’s Guard deployment to Portland, and the president’s push to send troops into unwilling cities “will be further tested in two court hearings” today, Reuters said. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will review Trump’s challenge to the Portland order, and a federal judge in Illinois will decide whether to bar troops from Chicago.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.