CHICAGO - President Donald Trump authorized the federalization of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago this weekend, escalating his administration’s use of federal intervention in American cities.
U.S. District Judge April Perry declined to immediately block the deployment today but urged federal officials to delay sending troops until Thursday, when she will hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by the State of Illinois and the city of Chicago challenging the move.
The White House said the deployment is needed to safeguard federal immigration agents and facilities following recent clashes with protesters. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other Democratic leaders warned that the action would inflame tensions rather than calm them.
“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” Pritzker said in a statement Sunday night. “It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
An Illinois official confirmed to ABC News that the Pentagon had authorized the mission. The Guard will require several days to mobilize and train, with the first troops possibly arriving in Chicago by the end of the week.
The memo from the Pentagon to the Illinois National Guard adjutant general read:
The Trump administration also plans to send members of the Texas National Guard after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requested additional support to protect federal immigration officers and facilities, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, a Chicago suburb that has seen repeated clashes between ICE agents and demonstrators.
A similar mobilization of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon was temporarily blocked Sunday after a federal judge found Trump was likely overstepping his legal authority in responding to relatively small protests near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
The League of Women Voters of Illinois and the League of Women Voters of the United States issued a stern statement rebuking the President's move to send in troops to escalate tensions between Illinois and the Trump administration.
"Illinoisans will not be bullied into submission by acquiescing to warrantless attacks on our citizens nor to inhumane treatment of our neighbors and family members. We have no interest in federal troops descending on our neighborhoods to impose terror in our streets simply as a show of power," the League wrote, representing over 800 local and state organizations. "The League strongly condemns the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago and every other American city without cause."
