Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the arrival of state military personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to yield. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives checking his power. What's next on the road toward complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, National Guard units from the Lone Star State had arrived at the Elwood training facility, an army base roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has labeled Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", even though official statistics indicate significant drops in many offenses, such as murders.
On Wednesday, 200 Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the region, with another 300 Illinois guard personnel preparing to mobilize, according to sources. Authorities indicated the troops would avoid law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were set up in rows. Additional fencing was placed around the compound.
Aviation authorities ordered flight restrictions over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
The administration has escalated immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, asking a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also issued an executive order on that day banning federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for enforcement actions.
The governor has charged the president of using troops as "political props" and "chess pieces".
During a press briefing on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The historic Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military's role in civilian law enforcement. However, the president has stated he would be willing to activate the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to send active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying federal law.
Since starting his second term, Trump has sent or mentioned sending military units to at least 10 urban centers, including major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to fight violence and protect ICE officers.
Statistics indicates that serious offenses nationwide has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were reduced 31% to under three hundred through late summer, per police data.
New survey data released on that day found that the majority of US citizens oppose the deployment of military forces without an foreign danger.
