Ex-President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday demanded the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic faction.
Trump's statements coincide with the arrival of state military personnel in the Windy City area under orders from the current government, despite vehement protests from Illinois authorities such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on that day. "I'm not going put."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I refuse to yield. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What remains on the path to complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, military units from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood army reserve center, an army base roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has labeled Chicago a "crime-ridden disaster zone", despite police data indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, including homicides.
On Wednesday, 200 state guard troops were expected to deploy to the region, with another 300 Illinois guard forces readying for deployment, according to sources. Officials indicated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would secure ICE officers and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Vehicles marked "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were set up in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the military base for security reasons until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering protests, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, state and city filed a lawsuit against the administration, attempting to halt the National Guard deployment, urging a court to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on the city and state, calling it "illegal and dangerous".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also signed an directive on Monday prohibiting federal immigration agents and related personnel from using city-owned property as operation bases for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has charged Trump of using military forces as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on the previous day, he said that Trump is attempting to "rationalize and normalize the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law limits the army's involvement in civilian law enforcement. However, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a commander-in-chief to dispatch regular army in states that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his second term, Trump has sent or mentioned sending military units to at least 10 cities, including major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is essential to combat crime and protect immigration agents.
Data shows that most violent crime nationwide has declined in recent years. In the city, for example, homicides were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll released on that day found that most Americans oppose the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
