Ex-President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of National Guard troops in the Windy City area following directives from the current government, despite vehement protests from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump attempted to have a Black man unjustly detained," Johnson responded on that day. "I'm not going anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I will not back down. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of elected officials checking his power. What's next on the road toward full-blown authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, an army base approximately 80 kilometers from the city, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite police data indicate significant drops in many offenses, such as homicides.
That day, 200 Texas National Guard members were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with another 300 state military personnel preparing to mobilize, per sources. Authorities indicated the troops would not perform police functions but would secure federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Vehicles marked "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering demonstrations, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city filed a lawsuit against the federal government, attempting to halt the National Guard deployment, urging a federal judge to stop what they call "the president's proclaimed 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also signed an executive order on that day banning ICE officers and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for enforcement actions.
The governor has charged Trump of using troops as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is attempting to "rationalize and normalize the deployment of armed soldiers under his personal authority."
The historic Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has said he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a commander-in-chief to send regular army in states that are failing to put down an insurrection or are defying national authority.
After beginning his second term, Trump has sent or discussed sending military units to over ten urban centers, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Statistics indicates that serious offenses across the US has declined in the past few years. In the city, for instance, murders were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, per law enforcement reports.
A recent poll released on that day revealed that most Americans oppose the deployment of troops without an foreign danger.
