Trump Calls for Imprisonment of Chicago Mayor and Illinois Governor as Military Forces Arrive in City

Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.

"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"

The two leaders identify as the Democratic faction.

These remarks coincide with the deployment of National Guard personnel in the Windy City area under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.

"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I'm not going anywhere."

Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I will not yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward full-blown autocracy?"

As of midweek, National Guard troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood training facility, an army base roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its aggressive urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.

Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite police data indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, such as homicides.

On Wednesday, two hundred state guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with another 300 state military forces readying for deployment, per sources. Officials indicated the troops would avoid police functions but would protect federal immigration agents and their facilities.

Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were spotted at the military facility in Elwood. Vehicles marked "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were set up in lines. Additional fencing was placed around the compound.

Aviation authorities imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.

The administration has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an immigration center in Broadview.

On Monday, state and city filed a lawsuit against the administration, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on the city and state, labeling it "unlawful and risky".

Legal proceedings on their case is set for Thursday.

The mayor also signed an executive order on that day prohibiting federal immigration agents and others from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.

Pritzker has accused the president of using troops as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".

At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his personal authority."

The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in civilian law enforcement. However, the president has said he would be prepared to activate the emergency powers, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are resisting federal law.

After beginning his second term, Trump has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten urban centers, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the armed forces is necessary to fight violence and defend immigration agents.

Statistics indicates that most violent crime across the US has decreased in the past few years. In Chicago, for instance, homicides were reduced 31% to under three hundred through August, according to police data.

New survey data released on Wednesday revealed that most Americans disapprove of the sending of military forces without an external threat.