After more than a month of threats from President Donald Trump, Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday said the Department of Homeland Security is seeking the deployment of 100 military troops to Illinois “for the protection of ICE personnel and facilities.”
The governor delivered the news surrounded by Mayor Brandon Johnson, Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other local leaders as he spoke out about border patrol agents patrolling downtown Chicago with guns — and arrests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in west suburban Broadview.
Pritzker said the Illinois National Guard obtained a memo that DHS sent to the Defense Department which sought to request 100 military personnel for Illinois. It’s unclear what type of troops would be deployed or when. But Pritzker likened the memo to one sent by the Defense Department to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Sunday, which called 200 members of the Oregon National Guard into federal service for a 60-day deployment, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“What I have been warning of is now being realized,” Pritzker said. “One thing is clear: None of what [President] Trump is doing is making Illinois safer.”
The governor’s office is preparing for the possibility of an imminent arrival of troops. Christian Mitchell, Pritzker’s running mate and his former deputy governor, is an active member of the Illinois National Guard.
Pritzker said the feds are “claiming a need for the protection of ICE personnel and facilities” for the deployment.
It’s unclear what prompted the memo’s directive — but two people were each charged with forcibly assaulting and resisting federal officers during protests last weekend outside the Broadview facility. Ray Collins and his partner, Jocelyne Robledo, each allegedly carried a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic pistol Saturday, but authorities confirmed they had “lawful permits.”
At the same time, Broadview police have opened an investigation into federal agents after an allegedly unprovoked attack on a CBS News Chicago reporter’s vehicle Sunday. In a report Sunday night, CBS said reporter Asal Rezaei was alone, driving her truck to the facility early Sunday when a masked federal agent shot pepper balls at her from about 50 feet inside the detention facility’s fence. There were no protests or protesters in the area at the time.
Federal officers have fired rubber pellets and chemical irritants into crowds of protesters outside the ICE facility where immigrants are being held in suburban Broadview. The compound has been ground zero for protests since the Trump administration announced the launch of “Operation Midway Blitz” on Sept. 8, bringing a flood of federal immigration officers to the Chicago area to conduct raids and arrests.
“In Broadview, people non-violently holding signs and chanting against brutality, expressing their First Amendment rights have been regularly attacked with chemical agents like tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and flash bangs,” Pritzker said on Monday. “Agents reportedly unholstered their guns and pointed them at protesters. In their own words, ICE intended to unleash ‘a s*** show’ in the Broadview community without provocation and acting like jack-booted thugs.”
The governor learned of the memo “minutes before” he planned to step before media to respond to a weekend of increased ICE activity across Chicago.
Trump has threatened to send troops to Chicago for more than a month, citing the city’s crime rate — which has seen a decline in both violent crime and its murder rates. But DHS and Attorney General Pam Bondi have amplified their messaging that ICE agents are under attack.
Pritzker urged Chicagoans to record any interactions with ICE agents on their phones, and “narrate what you see, put it on social media.
“With one voice, we are telling this unwarranted and unconstitutional occupation by ICE and potentially by military troops to get out of Chicago,” Pritzker said. “You are not helping us.”
Pritzker called the need to protect ICE facilities a “pretext, again, for bringing troops into the city, for normalizing the militarization of our cities. And we just won’t allow that.”
Johnson called armed border agents in downtown Chicago a “stunt that has nothing to do with public safety.
“This is about politics, money and power. The president is using his militarized force the exact way he intended — to advance his political goals. He wants to militarize our cities, whether that’s through ICE or through the National Guard or the United States Army or armed forces,” Johnson said. “He wants to provoke conflict so that he can use this as a pretext to send even more federal agents into our city. What we saw yesterday was an absolute disgrace.”
Both Raoul and Pritzker said a memo was not enough to spark a legal challenge, “but I know that there are actions in waiting and a lawsuit potentially,” the governor said.
Raoul said his office was “prepared” to file a suit should troops be deployed.
Raoul said Illinois would file a lawsuit against the Trump administration “if the evidence follows, the pattern follows what we’ve seen in Oregon.” The state of Oregon and the city of Portland have already filed a federal suit, calling the deployment of National Guard troops unlawful.
“Clearly, this deployment of the federal officers … is meant to provoke Chicago,” Raoul said. “What the president is hoping to do is foment chaos by inciting out-of-control protests. So I urge Illinoisans, don’t take the bait.”
American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said the federal government has offered few details about which “troops” could be sent, meaning “it’s impossible to assess the legality of an order the president has not yet issued.
“That said, the most important thing to recall is that there is no emergency that justifies sending additional force into Chicago,” Yohnka said. “It is just not necessary. It is important to recall that there is a legal prohibition on using U.S. military personnel to conduct routine police activities domestically.”
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Contributing: Nader Issa, Jon Seidel, Violet Miller
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