Ex-President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic party.
Trump's statements come alongside the deployment of state military troops in the Chicago region following directives from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have a Black man unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I'm not going anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What's next on the road toward complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, military units from Texas had reached the Elwood army reserve center, an army base approximately 50 miles from the city, as the federal government advances with its aggressive urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, such as homicides.
That day, 200 state guard members were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces preparing to mobilize, per sources. Officials reportedly stated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure ICE officers and their facilities.
Soldiers in combat attire with Texas national guard insignia were spotted at the US army reserve center in the town. Trucks labeled "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were set up in lines. Additional fencing was installed around the compound.
Aviation authorities ordered flight restrictions over the military base for security reasons until early December.
Federal authorities has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering protests, especially near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a court to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and risky".
Legal proceedings on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also issued an executive order on that day banning ICE officers and others from using municipal facilities as operation bases for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has charged Trump of using military forces as "political props" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to dispatch regular army in regions that are unable to suppress an uprising or are resisting national authority.
Since starting his new administration, Trump has sent or mentioned sending military units to at least 10 urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Data shows that serious offenses nationwide has decreased in recent years. In the city, for instance, homicides were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, according to law enforcement reports.
A recent poll released on that day revealed that most Americans disapprove of the sending of troops without an external threat.
