Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding federal immigration officers.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor as well!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks come alongside the arrival of National Guard personnel in the Windy City area under orders from the current government, despite vehement protests from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This marks yet another attempt where Trump attempted to have a Black man unjustly detained," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, stating: "I will not yield. Trump is now demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What's next on the path to complete autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its aggressive urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite police data indicate notable reductions in many offenses, such as murders.
That day, 200 Texas National Guard members were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard personnel preparing to mobilize, per reports. Officials reportedly stated the troops would avoid police functions but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Trailers were arranged in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the perimeter.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until 6 December.
The administration has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an processing facility in Broadview.
On Monday, state and city initiated legal action against the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also signed an executive order on Monday banning ICE officers and related personnel from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has accused Trump of using troops as "political props" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, he said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in civilian law enforcement. Yet, the president has stated he would be willing to activate the emergency powers, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to put down an uprising or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his new administration, Trump has sent or mentioned sending military units to at least 10 urban centers, including major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the military presence is essential to fight violence and defend ICE officers.
Statistics shows that serious offenses across the US has declined in the past few years. In Chicago, for example, murders were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on Wednesday found that most Americans disapprove of the deployment of troops without an foreign danger.
