Former President Donald J. Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the arrival of National Guard personnel in the Chicago region following directives from the current government, despite 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 put."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Trump is now demanding arrests of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration advances with its hardline urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has labeled Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, such as homicides.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred state military personnel readying for deployment, according to sources. Authorities indicated the troops would avoid police functions but would protect federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were observed at the military facility in the town. Vehicles marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were arranged in rows. Extra barriers was placed around the perimeter.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in recent weeks, triggering protests, particularly near an processing facility in Broadview.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit targeting the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'Battle'" on the city and state, calling it "unlawful and risky".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is set for the next day.
The mayor also signed an directive on Monday banning federal immigration agents and related personnel from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has accused Trump of using military forces as "political props" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, he said that Trump is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law limits the military's role in civilian law enforcement. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to put down an uprising or are defying national authority.
Since starting his new administration, the president has dispatched or discussed sending military units to over ten cities, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Data shows that most violent crime across the US has declined in the past few years. In Chicago, for example, murders were down 31% to under three hundred through late summer, per police data.
New survey data released on Wednesday found that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the sending of troops without an external threat.
