Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic faction.
Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of state military personnel in the Windy City area following directives from the current government, despite strong objections from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on that day. "I'm not going put."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I will not back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials checking his power. What's next on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
As of midweek, National Guard troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation approximately 50 miles from the city, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite official statistics indicate notable reductions in many offenses, including homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with another 300 state military personnel preparing to mobilize, according to reports. Officials reportedly stated the troops would avoid law enforcement duties but would protect ICE officers and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with state guard patches were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were arranged in rows. Additional fencing was placed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in the past month, triggering protests, particularly near an processing facility in Broadview.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they call "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.
Mayor Johnson also signed an executive order on that day banning ICE officers and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has accused the president of using military forces as "political props" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "justify and make acceptable the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The historic federal law restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has stated he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to send regular army in states that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting national authority.
Since starting his new administration, Trump has sent or mentioned deploying troops to over ten cities, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the armed forces is essential to fight violence and protect ICE officers.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for instance, murders were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, per law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the sending of military forces without an external threat.
