Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said President Donald Trump plans to call up 300 members of the state¡¯s national guard, defying opposition from local and state leaders.
The deployment signals a potential escalation in the administration¡¯s focus on Chicago, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have stepped up activity and tensions have flared between federal agents and protesters outside an immigration processing center in suburban Broadview, Illinois. On Friday, a Chicago City Council member was handcuffed and detained by federal agents at a hospital.
The Illinois National Guard on Saturday received a request from the Defense Department ¡ª which Trump has renamed the Department of War ¡ª saying he plans to federalize 300 members of the state¡¯s National Guard in ¡°the coming hours,¡± Pritzker said.
¡°This morning, the Trump Administration¡¯s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,¡± said Pritzker, a Democrat. ¡°It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.¡±
The White House didn¡¯t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tensions rose further Saturday after a confusing incident near the Broadview facility. U.S. Border Patrol personnel shot an armed woman, the Department of Homeland Security said, as scores of protesters faced off against federal immigration agents on the city¡¯s southwest side.
No law enforcement officers were seriously injured in the incident in which a group that included the woman rammed cars into vehicles used by ICE, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
The woman, a U.S. citizen who was not identified, drove herself to the hospital, according to the statement.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago charged three people related to the incident, saying they used their vehicles to impede the work of federal officers. Two of the three people allegedly used their cars to strike those being driven by federal agents, while the third person allegedly rear-ended a federal law enforcement vehicle, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney¡¯s office.
The Illinois deployment would be at least the fifth this year, either announced or activated, following orders sending guard units to Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, successfully challenged one deployment in court, though the White House is appealing.
Pritzker has repeatedly said there¡¯s no need for federal troops in Illinois.
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