Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump posted on social media Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor too!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.
Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of National Guard personnel in the Windy City area under orders from the federal administration, despite vehement protests from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump attempted to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on that day. "I'm not going anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, declaring: "I will not yield. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the path to full-blown autocracy?"
As of midweek, military units from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "crime-ridden disaster zone", even though official statistics indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as homicides.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard personnel preparing to mobilize, according to sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would protect federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Military personnel in combat attire with Texas national guard patches were spotted at the US army reserve center in the town. Vehicles labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered portable toilets and essential items. Mobile units were set up in rows. Extra barriers was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the army reserve center for safety concerns until 6 December.
The administration has escalated deportation operations in the city in the past month, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an immigration center in Broadview.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit targeting the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, asking 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 scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also issued an executive order on that day prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using city-owned property as operation bases for deportation efforts.
The governor has charged the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on the previous day, he said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and normalize the presence of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in civilian law enforcement. However, the president has stated he would be willing to activate the Insurrection Act, which allows a commander-in-chief to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying national authority.
Since starting his second term, Trump has dispatched or discussed deploying military units to at least 10 cities, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the armed forces is essential to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Data indicates that serious offenses across the US has declined in the past few years. In Chicago, 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.
