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'Serious, Ominous Stuff': Trump Calls to Jail Johnson, Pritzker After Texas Invasion
One critic accused Trump of "pitting armed soldiers from one state against the citizens of another."
Oct 08, 2025
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker hours after members of the Texas National Guard arrived to patrol the streets of the third-largest US city.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the "Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers" and then added, "Governor Pritzker also!"
Sam Stein, a reporter at The Bulwark, described Trump's call to jail Johnson and Pritzker "serious, ominous stuff" in a post on X, and then recommended an article written by his colleague, Jonathan Last, who warned that the Texas National Guard is being used "to impose the president’s will on the citizens of Illinois."
Last then listed actions by federal immigration enforcement officials that he described as a ratcheting up of "extralegal violence against both immigrants and citizens in Chicago" aimed at provoking an angry local response that will then be used as a justification for further escalation.
"He is setting not just the federal government against one of the states, but pitting armed soldiers from one state against the citizens of another," Last warned.
Trump's threats to jail Johnson and Pritzker came on the same day that former FBI Director James Comey was arraigned in federal court after Trump directly lobbied for his indictment last month, even going so far as to fire the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia because he did not think there was a legitimate criminal case against Comey.
Trump on Tuesday officially deployed Texas National Guard troops to Chicago, purportedly to assist local law enforcement and federal immigration officials working in the area.
Since the president launched "Operation Midway Blitz" in September, hundreds of federal immigration agents have been deployed to Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, where Pritzker has said they have caused "chaos" where none existed before they arrived—attacking a journalist and a priest with pepper balls at a protest outside an ICE facility; slamming a congressional candidate to the ground; dragging US citizens, including children, out of their homes during a raid in the middle of the night; and fatally shooting a man during a traffic stop.
In a speech delivered last week in front of hundreds of US generals, Trump laid out plans to use the American military to battle against a group of citizens whom he described as "the enemy from within."
"This is a war too," Trump said at one point during his speech. "It’s a war from within."
The president also said that he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that "we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," after he listed San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles as "very dangerous places" that "we’re gonna straighten... out one by one."
Trump for decades has spoken in approving terms of governments that use the military to crush internal dissent. In a 1990 interview with Playboy, for instance, Trump said that the Chinese government "almost blew it" when student protesters flooded into Tiananmen Square.
"Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength," Trump said of China. "That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak."
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'Illegal... Unconstitutional... Dangerous... Wrong': Texas National Guard Troops Invade Illinois
"Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting," vowed Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
Oct 07, 2025
Defying objections from state and local leaders, Texas Army National Guard troops sent on orders from President Donald Trump began arriving in Chicagoland Tuesday, sparking widespread outrage and vows to resist.
Hundreds of federalized troops arrived at a military facility in suburban Joliet, Block Club Chicago reported. The Trump administration also announced plans over the weekend to federalize the Illinois National Guard and call up hundreds more troops for a mission to ostensibly support the president's anti-immigrant crackdown.
Officials including US Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson—all Democrats—have condemned the deployment.
"No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate,” Pritzker said in a statement ahead of the deployment. “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
President Trump and Governor Abbott have illegally sent the Texas National Guard into the sovereign state of Illinois over the objections of Governor Pritzker.This is a frightening and unconstitutional escalation.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@durbin.senate.gov) October 7, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Johnson—who on Monday signed an executive order establishing “ICE-free zones,” barring US Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel from using city-owned facilities—addressed the deployment during a Tuesday press conference.
"As far as what we are hearing, the National Guard—first of all, it’s illegal, unconstitutional, it’s dangerous, it’s wrong," the progressive leader of the nation's third-largest city told reporters. "This is not about deportation. This is not about safety for this president."
Illinois and the city of Chicago on Monday filed a pair of lawsuits seeking to block Trump's invasion. US District Judge April Perry subsequently refused to block the deployment, instead ordering the US Department of Justice to respond to the lawsuit within 48 hours. Perry set a Thursday hearing on the matter before she issues a ruling on the plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order to block the deployment.
Trump's Illinois deployment followed his federal invasion of cities including Los Angeles, California; Washington, DC; and Portland, Oregon. Judges have ruled that the LA and Portland deployments are illegal.
On Monday, Trump said he was open to invoking the Insurrection Act to put down future civil unrest in US cities, drawing sharp condemnation from legal experts and other critics, some of whom accused the president of trying to foment disorder he could cite to justify even more authoritarianism.
Officials and activists in Illinois vowed to continue resisting Trump's actions.
"Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting," Pritzker said Tuesday. "We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities."
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GOP Senator Calls ICE Comments by Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Criminal Incitements to Violence
The two Democratic leaders have strongly condemned "Operation Midway Blitz," in which immigration agents have violently raided homes and cracked down on peaceful protests.
Oct 07, 2025
Merely by describing the recent actions of federal immigration agents in Chicago, one Republican senator claimed at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, the city's mayor and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, were "inciting violence."
At the hearing, where Attorney General Pam Bondi testified on her leadership of the US Department of Justice since she was appointed by President Donald Trump, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) recited a list of recent statements by Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson, both of whom have expressed strong opposition to "Operation Midway Blitz."
The campaign has involved the deployment of more than 200 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal immigration authorities who have officially been directed to arrest undocumented immigrants with violent criminal records. More than 1,000 people have been arrested since ICE arrived in the nation's third-largest city in September. Nationally, the libertarian CATO Institute found in June that about 65% of people detained by ICE this year have not had any criminal conviction.
In Chicago over the past month, US citizens, immigrants with legal status, and children have been swept up in raids and violence. ICE agents have been filmed throwing a congressional candidate to the ground at a protest; a journalist reported being attacked with a pepper ball by a masked agent "absolutely unprovoked" outside a detention facility where she was covering protests; and body camera footage has cast doubt on the Department of Homeland Security's justification for the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez.
In her comments on Tuesday, Moody claimed to be concerned about violence in Chicago—but as with Trump's signing of a presidential memo last month that mandates a "national strategy" to allow law enforcement to clamp down on left-wing organizers before they can commit "violent political acts," the senator reserved her alarm for violence that she claimed Pritzker and Johnson were inciting by talking about ICE.
Moody condemned Pritzker's description of "militarized [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE agents to the streets of Chicago" and his statement that "people are getting detained, they're getting arrested." She placed special emphasis on the words "US citizens," apparently to suggest the governor should not speak about the fact that citizens, including residents of an apartment complex where ICE agents broke down doors and dragged people out onto the street one night last week, have been detained.
Moody: Pritzker says they are using tear gas and chemical agents at peaceful protesters…. I am wondering if Pritzker and Johnson understand that there are federal laws that criminalize inciting violence pic.twitter.com/ffpN6xWRWQ
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2025
Moody also denounced Johnson's comments on "a rogue, reckless group of heavily armed, masked individuals roaming throughout our city" and for saying that the city "will use this as an opportunity to build greater resistance."
The senator appeared to suggest that, were it not for Johnson and Pritzker's expressions of outrage over Trump's deployment of federal agents and the National Guard in Chicago, residents would not be alarmed about Operation Midway Blitz.
"I am wondering if Pritzker and Johnson understand that there are federal laws that criminalize inciting violence," said Moody. "Any time you start pitting your own people against their own government, a government that's only there at its core to protect rights and the safety of its people, that is incredibly dangerous."
Without being pushed by Pritzker and Johnson, Chicago residents have engaged in nonviolent protests against Trump's anti-immigration agenda in recent weeks, with thousands marching in solidarity with immigrant communities before the deployment of ICE agents began.
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Trump Freezes Billions for Chicago Infrastructure Projects Amid Shutdown
"Argentina gets $20 billion and the South Side gets nothing. What happened to America First?" said the city's Democratic mayor.
Oct 03, 2025
Elected leaders in Illinois are calling foul after President Donald Trump froze funding for multiple infrastructure projects in Chicago.
As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it is withholding payments for $2.1 billion worth of infrastructure projects in the Windy City, including an extension for Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought justified the freezes in a post on social media by saying he wanted to "ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting."
Democratic politicians in Illinois, however, accused the White House of abusing its powers to punish political enemies amid the current shutdown of the federal government.
"At a time when federal agents are sowing chaos in Chicago, the Trump administration is holding bipartisan funding hostage," said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a social media post. "It’s attempting to score political points but is instead hurting our economy and the hardworking people who rely on public transit to get to work or school."
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also denounced Trump's actions and question why he was freezing money for a major American city while green-lighting a bailout of Argentina, which is currently being led by President Javier Milei, a right-wing Trump ally.
"Argentina gets $20 billion and the South Side gets nothing," he wrote on X. "What happened to America First?"
According to the Sun-Times, Johnson also vowed to fight the administration's freeze on the Red Line funding, which he said had been a community priority for decades.
"This is not just an egregious act," he said. "He is working outside of the parameters of what our ordinances and our state law provides for minority and women-owned participation... the South Side has fought for this for 50 years, and we have finally delivered it. And after 50 years of struggle to make sure that the South Side is prioritized, this president is gonna try to disrupt that? Not on my watch."
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) warned that the Trump administration might try to permanently block funding for Chicago, which he suggested could become a blueprint for other administration actions against cities whose elected leaders oppose the president.
"I believe there’s a very real chance that the Red Line funding doesn’t go through during the Trump administration,” Quigley told the Sun-Times. "If they can get away with this, I believe they’re going to cut off every bit of federal funding they can to cities, and this is just the start."
The Trump administration's actions in Chicago mirror the ones it took in New York City, where Vought announced earlier this week that he was freezing $18 billion worth of spending "to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional [diversity, equity, and inclusion] principles."
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ICE Operation 'Midway Blitz' Underway as Authoritarian Trump Targets Chicago
"Donald Trump and his departments of alphabet boys and National Guard troops aren't welcome and aren't needed in Chicago," said the head of the city's teachers union.
Sep 08, 2025
After several days of US President Donald Trump threatening a militarized invasion of Chicago, his administration on Monday announced "Operation Midway Blitz," claiming it is "in honor of" a young woman allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant accused of drunk driving about 140 miles south of the Illinois city.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled the immigration operation with a nearly five-minute video featuring Michelle and Joe Abraham, whose 20-year-old daughter Katie was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Urbana in January. The alleged driver, a Guatemalan national, was arrested in Texas a few days later.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation "will target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Chicago," even though the libertarian CATO Institute revealed in June that 65% of immigrants booked by the agency under Trump had no criminal convictions and over 93% were never convicted of violent offenses.
Like Trump has in recent days, McLaughlin took aim at Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, saying that he "and his fellow sanctuary politicians released Tren de Aragua gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers on Chicago's streets—putting American lives at risk and making Chicago a magnet for criminals."
While Chicagoans have made their thoughts on a federal invasion clear, carrying signs that said "No Trump! No Troops!" and "No Nazis—No Kings" during a weekend protest, McLaughlin said that Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "have a clear message: No city is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return."
Pritzker and Chicago's Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, have forcefully pushed back against Trump's threats to launch a major anti-migrant operation in the city and possibly deploy the National Guard, as he has done in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, California.
In a New York Times opinion piece published hours before the widely anticipated DHS announcement, Johnson argued that "lowering crime rates here does not require an occupation of our city by armed members of the National Guard, as the White House continues to threaten us with. Chicagoans, including survivors of violence, have spoken out against such an extreme measure."
"If President Trump had listened to the city's leaders, he would recognize that Chicago just experienced record-low homicide numbers, making this the safest summer since the 1960s, a result of effective collaboration between communities and law enforcement," wrote the mayor, who signed an executive order ahead of the federal operation and is raising a family in Austin on the West Side, "one of the parts of our city where gun violence is most pervasive."
"My administration has managed to make progress in crime reduction with three interconnected strategies: effective and law-abiding policing, violence prevention, and addressing the root causes of crime," Johnson explained. "Our violence prevention work includes programs that employ former gang members to de-escalate conflicts as well as initiatives that connect people to jobs and resources."
"We have directed funding to neighborhoods that have suffered from chronic disinvestment to create jobs, provide mental health services, and more. We are on track to build, rehab, or preserve over 10,000 units of affordable housing," he continued. "We don't need the National Guard; we just need to invest in what works."
In a Monday statement, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged "the successful efforts of our mayor in reducing crime and investing in our community," and similarly stressed that whatever Trump is "spending on his raids is better spent on building affordable housing, reopening school libraries, and funding social workers to support children through the trauma this administration is inflicting on an entire generation who are worried every day if they will ever see their parents again."
"As a history teacher, I can tell you that history will not look kindly on Donald Trump or the individuals who are acting as his personal army," Davis Gates also said. "For weeks, the people of Chicago have made it clear that we do not need federal agents in our city, whether that is to separate immigrant families or racially profile in our Black neighborhoods."
"Chicago might have been built to keep our communities divided, but we are coming together now, like working people do against any bad boss, in radical solidarity to keep each other safe," the union leader added. "Donald Trump and his departments of alphabet boys and National Guard troops aren't welcome and aren't needed in Chicago."
Congressional Democrats who represent Illinois have also denounced the president's targeting of the country's third-largest city—including Sen. Dick Durbin, who took to the chamber's floor on Monday following the DHS announcement. Durbin accused Trump of attacking Chicago for "political theater."
While the Trump administration hasn't yet provided any update on the involvement of the National Guard, after the president moved to rename the US Department of Defense, he took to his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning with an image referencing the 1979 film Apocalypse Now and said, "Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR."
Appearing on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), said that "we don't have any indications of them getting ready to send troops into Chicago," but also that "the president of the United States essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation. This is not normal... This is not acceptable behavior."
Responding to the recent developments in a Monday statement, Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the national advocacy group America's Voice, said that "we have gone from a supposed war on immigrants to a war on Americans."
"America's Voice has long said that immigration was merely the 'tip of the spear' for this administration to justify and lead an attack on all of us—including violating due process, constitutional rights, and core democratic norms and pillars, such as deploying the military against American communities," she noted. "Sadly, all are coming to pass."
Cárdenas continued: "Why is the American president openly threatening an American city, as he readies the deployment of American troops against those residents? It's not about immigration, just as the Washington, DC deployment wasn't about crime. Instead, it's for purposes of retribution; sowing fear and dissent; provoking violence and dividing us as a nation."
"Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court just sided with the president and his plans to target indiscriminately and racially profile with impunity, effectively making racial profiling now the law of the land," she added, citing a Monday decision from the chief justice. "Whether calling it 'authoritarianism' or something else, it's clear we are fighting not just for immigrants, but also for a different vision of America that's now imperiled."
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Chicago Preps for Trump's Looming Militarized 'Invasion'
"If the federal government wants to help they should invest, not invade," said Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Sep 05, 2025
With some federal agents already at a nearby naval station and fencing erected around the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse overnight, Chicagoans and Illinois' elected officials on Friday continued to prepare for US President Donald Trump's militarized "invasion" of the country's third-largest city.
Trump has threatened to not only send immigration enforcement agents but also deploy the National Guard and even potentially active-duty military, mirroring what he has done in Los Angeles and the District of Columbia.
Anticipating imminent federal action, last Saturday, Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order targeting what he called Trump's "tyranny," and Gov. JB Pritzker, another Democrat, pledged Thursday that "we're going to immediately go to court if National Guard or other troops are deployed to the city of Chicago."
Trump has sent mixed messages this week. He said Tuesday that "we're going in" to Chicago, but "I didn't say when." The next day, he said the administration was still "making a determination" about the city and may target Louisiana, whose "great governor," Republican Jeff Landry, "wants us to straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite, you know, quite tough."
However, the Illinois action seems to be already underway. The New York Times reported Friday that it obtained an internal document which indicates that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials "would arrive at the Naval Station Great Lakes this week and that there would be 30 days of operations in the Chicago area."
Congressman Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Illinois' two Democratic US senators, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, visited the naval station on Friday seeking answers from DHS.
"They ended up saying they were unavailable and that they were locking the doors to the building that's being considered, and we wouldn't be able to enter it and see it," Durbin said. "This kind of secrecy shouldn't be part of our government."
Citing unnamed sources familiar with federal plans, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that "230 agents, at least some of whom work for US Customs and Border Protection, are coming from Los Angeles, where an immigration blitz this summer spurred protests that pushed Trump to call in the National Guard."
Amid fears of operations targeting immigrants, volunteers are patrolling for signs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the Chicago newspaper noted Friday. It also highlighted that deploying National Guard troops in the city could cost taxpayers nearly $1.6 million per day, according to the nonpartisan National Priorities Project.
The looming threat of stepped-up ICE action in Chicago is already having an impact: Organizers have canceled a Mexican Independence Day festival planned for September 13-14 in Grant Park, explaining that "it was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake—and that's a risk we are unwilling to take."
Community organizers and the Little Village Chamber of Commerce announced Friday that for now, the 54th annual 26th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade is still scheduled for September 14—a decision that was met with cheers from residents, according to WGN. One parade organizer said, "Our existence is our resistance."
The expected federal operation in Chicago has provoked protests. As part of the national "Workers Over Billionaires" marches on Monday, which was Labor Day, Chicagoans carried signs and chanted about their opposition to the deployment of National Guard troops and immigration agents.
On Friday, "demonstrators gathered on overpasses by I-94 in Wilmette and Evanston, holding up signs and flags calling out ICE's bolstered presence in the area," ABC7 reported. Protesters also descended a facility in suburban Broadview, "demonstrating against the planned use of the location as the main processing hub for those detained by ICE as a part of their upcoming operation."
Critics of Trump's attacks on Chicago and other Democrat-led cities have also pushed back against his lies about crime rates and called out his cuts to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
"Why did Trump cut $468 million from ATF's budget in his nasty, signature bill? Why did he cut funding for the agency responsible for getting guns off our streets by 29%? Why did he cut 1,465 positions from an agency that is so critical to reducing gun violence?" Chicago's mayor said Tuesday. "They cut funding from the agency that is actually stopping gun traffickers so that they could increase funding for ICE and Border Patrol."
Although at least eight people were killed and 50 others were wounded in Labor Day weekend shootings, data from the Chicago Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that the city is not the "murder capital of the world," as Trump has claimed.
On Friday, the Gun Violence Prevention PAC (G-PAC) of Illinois joined with the national groups Brady, GIFFORDS, and March for Our Lives to call for federal reform and restoration of funding to address shootings in Chicago rather than the deployment of the National Guard.
"Chicago's gun violence problem is directly related to the availability of illegal guns on our streets," said Kathleen Sances, president and CEO of G-PAC. "Illinois has made significant progress in passing commonsense gun laws with the help of GIFFORDS, Brady, and March for Our Lives, and these reforms have helped prevent access to illegal weapons."
"These efforts have contributed to Chicago's reduced crime rates, with the city recently experiencing the fewest summer murders in 60 years," Sances added. "But without meaningful reform at the federal level, guns will continue to cross into our state, and violence will persist. If the White House wants to get serious about violence, it can start by supporting gun safety efforts instead of the gun lobby."
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As Trump Targets Chicago, Mayor Fights His 'Tyranny' With Executive Order
"We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people," Mayor Brandon Johnson declared. "We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart."
Aug 30, 2025
Continuing the battle against US President Donald Trump's "erratic and petulant behavior," Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order responding to the Republican's threats to deploy federal immigration agents and potentially National Guard and active-duty troops to Illinois' biggest city.
Just before signing the order, Johnson told journalists that he would have preferred to work with City Council to pass legislation, "but unfortunately we do not have the luxury of time," given "credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government."
Asked about which specific reports he was referring to, the mayor just said that the deployment could occur as soon as Friday, so he had to take "immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach."
"We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people," he declared. "We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don't want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents. We don't want to see Chicagoans arrested for sitting on their porch. That's not who we are as a city, and that's not who we are as a nation."
A spokesperson for the suburban Naval Station Great Lakes confirmed to Military Times earlier this week that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has contacted the base about possibly using it for immigration enforcement activities.
The Chicago Sun-Times obtained an email in which the station's commanding officer, Navy Cpt. Stephen Yargosz, told his leadership team: "These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team."
According to the newspaper, Yargosz added in his Monday email that "this morning I received a call that there is the potential also to support National Guard units. Not many details on this right now. Mainly a lot of concerns and questions."
In addition to targeting California's largest city, Trump has recently federalized Washington, DC's police force and deployed the National Guard there—and he has threatened to similarly target other Democrat-led cities, despite their falling crime rates.
As the Sun-Times reported Saturday:
White House officials have distinctly said the operation in Chicago would mirror Los Angeles more than DC, which saw thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines—some of whom are stationed there through November—activated to quell protests against immigration raids.
"If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the president, their communities would be much safer," wrote White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. "[Democrats] should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump administration's success in driving down violent crime in Washington, DC."
Johnson's order against Trump's "tyranny" states that the mayor demands the president "and any agents acting under his authority stand down from any attempts to deploy the US armed forces—including the National Guard—in Chicago."
"The city will pursue all available legal and legislative avenues to counter coordinated efforts from the federal government that violate the rights of the city and its residents, including the constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, and the right to due process," the document warns.
The order also establishes the Protecting Chicago Initiative, which will include making information regarding residents' rights and federal government action available; coordinating efforts to identify and address community needs; and regularly submitting public records requests to DHS, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection.
The document states that the Chicago Police Department "shall remain a locally controlled law enforcement agency" under the authority of the city and the mayor, no CPD personnel shall participate in civil immigration enforcement, and all officers, "when engaged in any law enforcement, crowd management, or public safety operations, will wear department-authorized uniforms."
It further says that "CPD officers are prohibited from intentionally disguising or concealing their identities from the public by wearing any mask, covering, or disguise while performing their official duties," and "all other law enforcement officers, including federal agents, as well as members of the military operating in Chicago, are urged to adhere to these requirements to protect public safety and promote accountability."
Under Trump, federal immigration officials have often donned masks—which has led to people targeted for arrest questioning whether they are encountering real agents, as well as criminals impersonating agents.
During Saturday's signing event, Johnson said that his office has communicated with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and the state's congressional delegation, and "we are in complete alignment."
The mayor's move won praise from the Chicago Teachers Union, which said in a statement that CTU "stands in firm opposition to the president's threat to occupy our city with federal forces and terrorize our communities. As educators working and living in every one of Chicago's 77 neighborhoods, we know that safety does not come from federal forces invading our city. Real safety comes from the types of community investments that Mayor Johnson has made into public health, public education, summer youth jobs, affordable housing, small business development, and mental health care."
Noting Trump's recent attacks on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the union said that "if Trump wants to spend a million dollars a day in Chicago, he can send it for crossing guards to help our children move safely across this city, for Safe Passage to make sure that our children have a friendly face to see on their journey back and forth to home, for SNAP benefits to make sure our children have the nutrition they need to thrive and flourish, for special education and dual language supports for our students, and for healthcare so their families can afford the medicine and care they need."
"The CTU applauds Mayor Johnson for taking steps to protect the rights of Chicagoans, and to not be conscripted into Trump's threatened occupation of our city," the union continued. "We stand in solidarity with all of our fellow Chicagoans, as we say no to occupation and demand that our federal tax dollars be used to provide the services our communities actually need: healthcare, SNAP, and fully funded schools to our communities, not to send federal troops to terrorize them."
"This is why we will join tens of thousands of Chicagoans on Monday at 11:00 am, for the Workers Over Billionaires march and rally," the CTU added. "This Labor Day, we will be in the streets of our city, marching peacefully, to say NO to Trump, his occupation, and the billionaire takeover of our country."
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As Trump Eyes Chicago Takeover, Progressives Say 'We Must Fight Back'
"This is not about fighting crime," said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals."
Aug 27, 2025
Progressive voices and Democratic leaders this week are letting it be known they will not take President Donald Trump's threat to target the city of Chicago for his next federal takeover and deployment of federal troops lying down.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday, alongside Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and US Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), held a press conference to let Trump know that Chicago residents want no part of his plan to deploy the military into their city.
"The last thing that Chicagoans want is someone from the outside of our city, who doesn't know our city, trying to dictate and tell us what our city needs," said Johnson. "As the mayor of this city, I can tell you that Chicagoans are not calling for military occupation."
Pritzker, meanwhile, bluntly warned Trump against sending troops to his state's largest city.
"This is not about fighting crime," Pritzker said of Trump's plans to deploy the military in Chicago. "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals."
Illinois politicians weren't the only ones who are vowing to resist Trump's designs on Chicago, as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) warned that the president had ambitions to deploy troops to all major American cities.
"First it was LA, then DC, and now Chicago," she wrote in a social media post Tuesday. "None of us are safe from Trump's authoritarian rule. We must fight back against this takeover of our cities."
Progressive organization Our Revolution, has started circulating a petition demanding that Congress vote against any Trump request to extend his control over the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department beyond the legally allowed period of 30 days.
Progressives' vows of defiance come as The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting new details about Trump's designs on the Windy City. According to the paper, the administration is planning to use a suburban naval base just outside the city to house federal immigration officials and potentially National Guard troops starting in September.
An email sent this week by US Navy Cpt. Stephen Yargosz obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times claimed that the deployment will be focused on "downtown Chicago," despite the fact that the downtown area is not where most violent crimes in the city occur.
Yargosz also said in his email that there are "not many details" right now about deploying the National Guard in Chicago, but "mainly a lot of concerns and questions."
The Chicago Sun-Times report also noted that all of these plans are being done without any input from or consultation with local officials, who have said that they are completely in the dark about what the president is plotting.
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Trump Says Chicago 'Probably Next' for National Guard Invasion
"If Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city," said one senior Illinois official. "Chicago doesn't bow down to kings or roll out the red carpet for dictators."
Aug 23, 2025
US President Donald Trump said Friday that Chicago is the next city in his crosshairs for the kind of federal invasion and occupation currently underway in Washington, DC—a threat that sparked defiant pushback from officials in the Windy City and beyond.
"After we do this, we'll go to another location, and we'll make it safe also," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to his federalization of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department and deployment of National Guard troops from the district and five Republican-controlled states.
"We're going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago's a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent and we'll straighten that one out probably next," the president said, referring to progressive Brandon Johnson. "That will be our next one after this. And it won't even be tough."
On August 11, Trump dubiously declared a public safety emergency in Washington, DC, despite violent crime being down 26% from a year ago, when it was at its second-lowest level since 1966, according to official statistics. Critics have noted that Trump's crackdown isn't just targeting criminals, but also unhoused and mentally ill people, who have had their homes destroyed and property taken.
On Friday, Trump threatened to completely take over Washington and oust Mayor Muriel Bowser if she does not stop pointing out that crime has decreased in the city, which the president called a "crime-infested rat hole."
In addition to Chicago, Trump has threatened to send federal forces into cities including Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and San Francisco. Violent crime is trending downward in all of those cities—with some registering historically low levels.
Unlike in Washington, DC, where home rule laws allow the federal government to take control of local police, Trump would face greater obstacles to intervention in other cities.
"President Trump can't seize control of the Chicago police or any other local department outside of DC," Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) noted on social media Friday. "The military cannot and will not patrol the streets of Chicago, and I will work with state and local officials to ensure that doesn't happen."
Mayor Johnson said in a statement that "the problem with the president's approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound."
"If the Trump administration is serious about driving down violence in Chicago, or anywhere else in America, then he should not have taken over $800 million away from violence prevention," he added.
Other elected officials in Illinois also expressed anger and alarm at the prospect of a Trump intervention in Chicago.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued the following statement in response to comments President Trump made today threatening to deploy federal law enforcement to perform civilian law enforcement duties in the city of Chicago: tinyurl.com/5n89nt86
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— Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (@ilattygeneral.bsky.social) August 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
"After using Los Angeles and Washington, DC as his testing ground for authoritarian overreach, Trump is now openly flirting with the idea of taking over other states and cities," Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on X.
"Trump's goal is to incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts—all to create a justification to further abuse his power," the governor continued. "He's playing a game and creating a spectacle for the press to play along with."
"We don't play those games," Pritzker added. "Our commitment to law and order is delivering results. Crime rates are improving. Homicides are down by more than 30% in Chicago in the last year alone. Our progress in lowering crime has been made possible with [community violence intervention] programs that they’re defunding."
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, a Democrat running for US Senate, said that "if Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city."
"Chicago doesn't bow down to kings or roll out the red carpet for dictators," she added. "As a Black woman from the South Side, I can assure you... your political circus isn't welcome here."
Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) wrote on social media, "President Trump: You are not welcome in Chicago."
"Sending the National Guard endangers Black communities already overpoliced and under-invested in," she added. "If you cared about saving lives, you'd pass gun safety laws and fund community violence intervention."
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Trump Administration Launches Immigration Enforcement Crackdown in Chicago
"We don't plan on backing down," said one Chicago organizer. "I think the right thing to do for the state and the city is to not back down to the feds."
Jan 26, 2025
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday announced that it began conducting "enhanced targeted operations" in the city of Chicago, a so-called sanctuary city, in order to "enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities," according to a statement the agency posted to the platform X.
The operation, which aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to ramp up immigration arrests and deportations, is being carried out in conjunction with other federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and others.
The news of the operation comes as The Washington Post reported Sunday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were directed over the weekend by Trump officials to ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to over a thousand "because the president has been disappointed with the result of his mass deportation campaign so far."
Trump had vowed on the campaign trail to implement a crackdown on immigration. During his first week in office, he issued a slew of executive orders aimed at immigration, including a measure targeting birthright citizenship, reinstating his "Remain in Mexico" policy, and moving to restrict federal funds for sanctuary jurisdictions.
Immigration enforcement targeted at Chicago and other sanctuary cities—a term that broadly applies to jurisdictions that have adopted policies to limit information sharing or cooperation with federal immigration enforcement actions—had been expected.
Trump's deputy acting attorney general sent a memo to Justice Department staff this week indicating that state and local officials could potentially be criminally prosecuted for failing to cooperate with Trump's ramped up immigration enforcement, and the Trump administration also revoked policies barring immigration enforcement actions in "sensitive" locations, such as schools.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson earlier this week reiterated his commitment to upholding the city's sanctuary policies.
Trump's immigration measures have already been met with legal challenges, including a lawsuit filed over the weekend by Chicago immigrant advocacy groups against ICE and two federal officials seeking an injunction prohibiting certain types of immigration raids in the city, according to the Chicago Tribune.
According to Thursday reporting from the outlet Bolts, organizers in Chicago had been bracing for raids carried out by ICE, but were hopeful that local protections put in place by the city and "know-your-rights" trainings aimed at immigrants who may be under threat of arrest would be able to limit the scale of the deportations.
Leone Jose Bicchieri, founder of Working Families Solidarity, a group that promotes labor rights education and inter-racial solidarity in Chicago, told Bolts: "We don't plan on backing down."
"I think the right thing to do for the state and the city is to not back down to the feds," he said.
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