Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) on Monday framed President Donald Trump‘s move to send around 100 troops to Illinois as an authoritarian move and an “attack” on Americans.
Pritzker said the Trump administration is finalizing plans to send the troops to curb demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The move is similar to the government’s actions in Los Angeles and Portland, where troops were authorized for deployment after some protests against ICE agents carrying out deportation operations turned violent.
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The Illinois National Guard received word that the Department of Homeland Security sent a memo to the Department of War to seek the deployment of troops, Pritzker said this week.
The Pentagon did not contradict the claim in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“The Department of War has received a request for assistance to safeguard Federal personnel, property, and functions in the state of Illinois. Any decisions will be made in accordance with established processes and announced at the appropriate time,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.
Pritzker has blasted Trump for suggesting the government could send in troops to target crime in Chicago ever since Trump first teased the proposal in late August. Pritzker believes the move violates constitutional restrictions on military involvement in state and local policing activity.
On Monday, Pritzker upped the rhetoric in an outraged speech denouncing Trump and ICE agents for advancing operations targeting illegal immigrants. Chicago has been among the cities seeing an increased presence of ICE since Trump took office, with reports of agents in the area hours after the governor finished his remarks.
“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.”
The Trump administration believes troops are needed to protect ICE facilities from rioters in the wake of demonstrations outside such locations across the country, one of which led to the death of two individuals after confrontations in Dallas. Violence against ICE and other federal agents, such as Border Patrol personnel, facilitating operations targeting illegal immigrants has spiked by 1,000%, according to DHS.
However, Pritzker characterized the effort as a “pretext, again, for bringing troops into the city, for normalizing the militarization of our cities. And we just won’t allow that.”
While the Trump administration has often highlighted ICE efforts to detain violent criminals in the country illegally, Priztker has argued that operations often target those without any criminal history for deportation. He has also raised concerns about agents stopping people on the basis of their ethnicity and voiced worries that federal personnel wearing masks during operations erodes transparency and public trust.
The governor on Monday urged residents to record any interactions with ICE agents on their phones and post encounters on social media.
“If federal agents marched down busy streets harassing civilians and demanding their papers … I don’t think we’d have any trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism,” Pritzker said. “I am outraged by what’s happening, and we’re seeing that ICE just doesn’t give a damn.”
He expressed particular anger over ICE’s encounters with members of the press. Local police opened a criminal investigation after a CBS Chicago reporter’s car was allegedly fired at by ICE agents with chemical munitions over the weekend. The reporter characterized the move as “unprovoked,” saying there were no active protests or protesters at the ICE facility she was monitoring.
“Without provocation and acting like jackbooted thugs, ICE has attacked and detained members of the press, including an independent journalist,” Pritzker said.
Illinois would be the latest state to see military activity. Earlier this month, Trump announced plans to send some National Guard troops and other federal agents to Memphis to “generally restore public safety and get dangerous career criminals off of our streets.” Over the weekend, the president said he was authorizing troops to be sent to Portland to protect “any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
Trump also federalized Washington, D.C., over the summer to target widespread criminal activity, leading to a steep decrease in crime.
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The actions from the White House have stirred debate about the role of military and federal efforts in state and local communities. The Trump team believes the agenda is validated by the desire to make cities safer and protect federal personnel carrying out immigration enforcement from violence.
Critics, such as Pritzker, believe the policy represents a grave overreach of federal power, marking an erosion of democratic values embedded in the Constitution.