Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker as well!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago region following directives from the federal administration, notwithstanding 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 wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to yield. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives checking his power. What's next on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?"
As of midweek, military troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation approximately 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden disaster zone", even though official statistics indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were expected to deploy to the region, with another 300 Illinois guard forces preparing to mobilize, according to sources. Officials reportedly stated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would secure federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in the town. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were set up in rows. Extra barriers was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in the past month, sparking protests, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on the city and state, labeling it "illegal and risky".
A court hearing on their case is scheduled for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also issued an directive on that day prohibiting federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has accused Trump of using troops as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, he said that Trump is attempting to "justify and normalize the deployment of military personnel under his direct command."
The historic Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military's role in civilian law enforcement. Yet, Trump has said he would be willing to activate the emergency powers, which allows a president to send active duty military in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are defying national authority.
Since starting his new administration, Trump has dispatched or mentioned deploying troops to over ten urban centers, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Statistics indicates that serious offenses across the US has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were reduced 31% to under three hundred through August, per police data.
New survey data released on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the sending of troops without an external threat.
