This week, the Trump administration plans to flood Chicago with federal officers to carry out its anti-immigrant agenda, according to news reports.
“The operation is expected to kick off in Chicago by this Friday and could involve agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and potentially be backed by guard forces in a peacekeeping role, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning,” CNN reported on Tuesday.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said on Sunday that no one from the Trump administration had contacted him or anyone in his office about the alleged plans.
“So, it’s clear that in secret they’re planning this — well, it’s an invasion with U.S. troops, if they in fact do that,” Pritzker said, per CNN.
Last week, CBS News reported that federal officers will use tactics in Chicago that are similar to those used in Los Angeles, which “included armored vehicles, tactical gear and weaponry.”
In June, the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant raids in Los Angeles prompted mass demonstrations across the city. Despite California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opposition, Trump sent in thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to crush the protests. Today, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of troops in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the president from using the military to carry out domestic law enforcement activities.
Separately, the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to send federal officers into Chicago and other cities under the pretense of fighting crime, just as it did last month in Washington, D.C. In order to justify his authoritarian tactics, Trump has misrepresented the prevalence of violent crime in D.C. and Chicago, both of which have reported record-low crime rates.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) cooperated with the Trump administration as it deployed federal officers and troops in her city, earning praise from the president and ire from her constituents. Unlike Bowser, Illinois’s elected officials have fought back. In a September 1 post on Truth Social, Trump condemned the opposition from Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), and others, claiming that D.C. is now a “CRIME FREE ZONE.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to say that about Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and even the Crime Drenched City of Baltimore???” he continued. “It can happen, and it can happen FAST! Work with us!!!”
On August 30, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order “to protect the Constitutional rights of Chicagoans amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government into Chicago,” the mayor’s office said in a press release, noting that violent crime had decreased in the city.
“With this executive order, we send a resounding message to the federal government: we do not need nor want an unconstitutional and illegal military occupation of our city,” Johnson said in a statement. “We do not want military checkpoints or armored vehicles on our streets and we do not want to see families ripped apart.”
City residents have also been preparing for a possible military occupation. Kelly Hayes, co-host of Truthout’s podcast “Movement Memos,” recently reported on a gathering of dozens of activists in Chicago who met to discuss how best to protect their communities.
“Trump’s Pentagon is drafting plans for a military invasion of Chicago,” Hayes wrote in Organizing My Thoughts. “The people most at risk — unhoused people, trans folks, Black and brown people, disabled people, and immigrants — need more than our fear and indignation. They need robust networks of care and defense in every corner of our beloved city.”
On Labor Day, Chicago residents took to the streets for a “Workers Over Billionaires” rally and decried a military occupation of their city.
“I do not want a government takeover, a military takeover of Chicago,” Chicago resident Terry McCaskill told CBS News Chicago. “How do we come back from that? They’ve taken over the capital. We’re the only ones standing in the way of dictatorship.”
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