Officials in Illinois condemned the Trump administration on Tuesday for a planned immigration crackdown and influx of federal agents into the city, calling it a political stunt that will terrify residents and inflame tensions in Latino neighborhoods.
“There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops,” said Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, standing alongside other elected officials, including Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago and State Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “He is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole, and anyone who takes his word at face value is insulting Chicagoans, too.”
In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr. Trump was asked if he had made a decision on sending National Guard troops to Chicago, and he said he intended to do it over Mr. Pritzker’s objections. “We’re going in,” he said.
Mr. Pritzker, a Democrat, cited statistics showing that crime, including murder, shootings and robberies, has plummeted in Chicago in recent years. He added that he believed President Trump has timed planned immigration enforcement actions to coincide with Mexican Independence Day festivities in Chicago, which begins on Saturday with a parade in Pilsen, a heavily Latino neighborhood.
The Trump administration has been making plans for an immigration crackdown in Chicago involving 200 homeland security officials and the use of a naval base near the city as a staging area.
If Mr. Trump chooses to deploy National Guard troops into Chicago, Mr. Pritzker said, the state is ready to fight the effort in court. Unlike in Washington, D.C., where the president used his power to deploy the district’s Guard as part of his security takeover there, governors normally have control of their state militias.
The president could separately deploy active-duty military. But on Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Mr. Trump’s use of federal troops in Los Angeles was illegal, a ruling that could limit his ability to use the operation there as a precedent to justify deploying soldiers into other cities to fight crime.
Mr. Johnson criticized the administration for failing to focus on illegal gun trafficking, which he said is a major cause of violence in Chicago.
“This president doesn’t care about gun violence,” Mr. Johnson said, adding that the Trump administration has cut funds to violence prevention programs that have proven effective.
A coalition of advocacy groups is preparing to mount protests in downtown Chicago this week if the administration begins an immigration crackdown or sends federal troops into the city.
“We know there is a broad opposition to National Guard deployment in Chicago,” said Brandon Lee, a spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “We’re just trying to be ready and stay ready.”