Ex-President Donald J. Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic party.
Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago region following directives from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from the Lone Star State had arrived at the Elwood training facility, a military installation roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government advances with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has labeled Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though official statistics indicate significant drops in many offenses, such as homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with another 300 state military personnel preparing to mobilize, per reports. Authorities reportedly stated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would protect federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in rows. Additional fencing was placed around the perimeter.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in recent weeks, triggering demonstrations, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, labeling it "illegal and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is set for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also signed an directive on Monday prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has charged the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and make acceptable the deployment of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The historic federal law limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. However, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are resisting national authority.
After beginning his new administration, the president has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten urban centers, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, arguing 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 Chicago, for example, murders were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the deployment of military forces without an foreign danger.
