Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the arrival of state military troops in the Windy City area under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from Illinois authorities such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I'm not going put."
The governor responded via online channels, stating: "I refuse to yield. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
As of midweek, military troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood training facility, a military installation approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government advances with its aggressive urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", even though police data indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as homicides.
On Wednesday, 200 state guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with another 300 state military personnel readying for deployment, according to sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would secure ICE officers and government buildings.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with Texas national guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were arranged in rows. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
The administration has intensified deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering protests, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action targeting the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is set for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also signed an executive order on that day banning ICE officers and related personnel from using city-owned property as operation bases for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has charged the president of using troops as "political props" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on the previous day, he said that the president is trying to "justify and normalize the deployment of armed soldiers under his personal authority."
The historic federal law limits the army's involvement in civilian law enforcement. However, Trump has stated he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to send regular army in states that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting national authority.
Since starting his second term, Trump has dispatched or mentioned deploying military units to over ten urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and protect immigration agents.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for example, homicides were reduced 31% to under three hundred through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on Wednesday revealed that most Americans oppose the deployment of troops without an external threat.
