The Trump administration plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, the Democratic Governor JB Pritzker said on Saturday.
Mr. Pritzker said the guard was informed by the Pentagon in the morning of the troop appeal. He did not specify neither when nor where they were deployed, but President Donald Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago.
“This morning, the Trump Administration War Department launched an ultimatum: call your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely scandalous and anti-American to demand from a governor that he sends military troops within our own borders and against our will. »»
A spokesperson for the Governor’s office said he could not provide additional details. The White House and the Pentagon did not answer questions concerning Mr. Pritzker’s declaration.
The intensification of federal order maintenance operations in Illinois follows similar deployments in other regions of the country. Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles this summer and as part of his control of the police in Washington. At the same time, troops of the Tennessee National Guard should lend a hand to the police of Memphis.
California Governor Gavin Newsom brought legal action to prevent deployment in Los Angeles and obtained a temporary suspension before the Federal Court. The Trump administration appealed this decision, saying that the use of the National Guard was illegal, and a panel of three judges from 9e United States Court of Appeal said he thought that the government was likely to win.
Mr. Pritzker qualified the intervention of the American president in the Illinois of “manufactured performance” which would distance the troops from the national guard of the state of their families and their usual jobs.
“For Donald Trump, there has never been a question of security. This is control, “said the Governor, who also stressed that the police, counties and local communities were coordinated to ensure the security of the BroadView Center for the United States Immigration and Customs Services, located on the outskirts of Chicago.
Federal officials reported the arrest of 13 people demonstrating on Friday near the center, frequently targeted when strengthening the immigration control measures set up by the administration this fall.
Donald Trump also declared last month that he sent federal troops to Portland, Oregon, qualifying the city ravaged by the war. However, local officials have suggested that many of his declarations and publications on social networks seem to rely on images of 2020, when demonstrations and disorders rocked the city after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Municipal and state officials brought legal action the next day to put an end to deployment. Federal judge Karin J. Immergut heard the pleadings on Friday, and a decision is expected this weekend.
Donald Trump federalized 200 soldiers of the National Guard in Oregon, but it does not yet seem that they are deployed in Portland. They were seen training on the coast in anticipation of a deployment.
With the collaboration of Rebecca Boone
