Ex-President Donald Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker as well!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic faction.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of state military troops in the Windy City area under orders from the current government, despite vehement protests from state officials such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on that day. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via social platforms, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Trump is now demanding arrests of democratically chosen representatives checking his power. What's next on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government advances with its hardline crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate significant drops in many offenses, such as homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred state military forces readying for deployment, per sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would protect ICE officers and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in the town. Vehicles labeled "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were set up in rows. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering protests, especially near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the administration, attempting to halt the National Guard deployment, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "the president's proclaimed 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also signed an executive order on that day prohibiting ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as staging areas for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has charged the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and normalize the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a commander-in-chief to send active duty military in states that are unable to suppress an insurrection or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his second term, Trump has dispatched or discussed sending troops to over ten cities, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the armed forces is necessary to fight violence and protect immigration agents.
Statistics shows that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in recent years. In the city, for example, homicides were down nearly one-third to 278 through late summer, per law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on Wednesday revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the deployment of troops without an external threat.
