Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Chicago 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 Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
Trump's statements come alongside the arrival of state military personnel in the Windy City area following directives from the federal administration, despite vehement protests from Illinois authorities such as the governor and mayor.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump has sought 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. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward full-blown authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate significant drops in many offenses, such as murders.
That day, 200 state guard troops were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with another 300 Illinois guard personnel readying for deployment, according to sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would protect federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard patches were observed at the military facility in the town. Trucks labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were set up in rows. Additional fencing was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
The administration has intensified immigration enforcement in the city in the past month, sparking demonstrations, especially near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, calling it "illegal and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their case is scheduled for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also issued an directive on Monday banning federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property as staging areas for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has charged the president of using troops as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that the president is trying to "justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law restricts the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has stated he would be willing to invoke the emergency powers, which permits a commander-in-chief to dispatch regular army in regions that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his second term, the president has dispatched or mentioned deploying military units to over ten cities, including major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the armed forces is essential to fight violence and protect immigration agents.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in recent years. In the city, for instance, murders were reduced 31% to under three hundred through late summer, according to police data.
A recent poll published on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
