Former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor belongs behind bars for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic faction.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of state military troops in the Chicago region following directives from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from state officials such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I am staying put."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, an army base roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its hardline urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite police data indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as murders.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard members were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred state military forces preparing to mobilize, per sources. Authorities reportedly stated the troops would not perform police functions but would secure ICE officers and government buildings.
Military personnel in combat attire with Texas national guard insignia were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off portable toilets and other supplies. Trailers were set up in lines. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified immigration enforcement in the city in the past month, sparking demonstrations, especially near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the administration, attempting to halt the military dispatch, asking a court to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "unlawful and dangerous".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is scheduled for the next day.
The mayor also issued an executive order on that day prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has accused Trump of using troops as "political props" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, he said that the president is attempting to "justify and make acceptable the deployment of armed soldiers under his personal authority."
The historic federal law restricts the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. However, the president has said he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which permits a commander-in-chief to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying federal law.
Since starting his second term, the president has dispatched or mentioned sending military units to over ten urban centers, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the military presence is necessary to fight violence and protect immigration agents.
Data indicates that serious offenses across the US has decreased in recent years. In the city, for instance, homicides were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, according to police data.
New survey data released on that day revealed that most Americans oppose the sending of military forces without an external threat.
