Donald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard in another city by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said border patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” Jackson said.
The Democratic Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, said the guard had received notice from the Pentagon early in the day. He called the move unnecessary and “a manufactured performance – not a serious effort to protect public safety.”
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“This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
He added: “They will pull hard-working Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance – not a serious effort to protect public safety. For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.
“This demand follows unprecedented escalations of aggression against Illinois citizens and residents.”
Trump’s plan to deploy troops comes just as a severe crackdown on immigration by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is happening in Chicago, with the operation being met with fierce outrage from local civic groups and opposition by local Democrats.
In his statement, Pritzker also noted that local, state and county law enforcement have been coordinating to ensure the safety of the Ice’s Broadview facility on the outskirts of Chicago.
Federal officials reported the arrests of 13 people protesting Friday near the facility, which has been frequently targeted during the administration’s surge of immigration enforcement this fall.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the shooting of a woman on the south-west side of Chicago.
It said in a statement that border patrol agents on patrol “were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars”, and when they got out of their trapped vehicle, “a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively”.
The woman who was shot was a US citizen and was armed with a semi-automatic weapon, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, noting that the woman was accused in a US Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin last week of doxing agents.
The woman was treated and released in the afternoon, according to Mount Sinai hospital. No officers were seriously injured, McLaughlin said.
The shooting comes after federal immigration agents last month shot and killed a Mexican immigrant in a Chicago suburb after he allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his car.
Chicago is one of a slew of US cities where Trump has deployed or threatened to deploy the national guard and other troops in order to help police the immigration crackdown – or, in some cases, to respond to inflated claims about crime levels.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a border patrol sector chief, on Friday visited the Broadview Ice facility in suburban Chicago, which has become the site of escalations by federal agents against protesters and journalists.
Noem vowed on social media on Saturday afternoon to send additional troops to Chicago: “I am deploying more special operations to control the scene. Reinforcements are on their way. If you see a law enforcement officer today, thank them.”
The Trump administration has targeted Chicago with federal law enforcement starting in August, falsely claiming there had been a rise in crime in the city in recent years.
Since then, there have been reports of increasingly aggressive Ice enforcement in communities, including helicopters hovering over apartment raids and arrests of local officials and candidates for office who protest against the operations.
Trump has also repeatedly deployed national guard troops to cities across the US, from Los Angeles to Washington DC, despite federal law generally prohibiting the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. The continuous pattern of military occupations on American soil has raised widespread concern about the politicization of the US military.
A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from deploying the national guard to Portland, Oregon, according to court documents.
In the restraining order released on Saturday, US district judge Karin Immergut – nominated by Trump – concurred with Oregon’s assertion that Trump deploying federalized national guard troops to Portland would likely inflame rather than calm protests, just as it did in 2020.
With Associated Press
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