(Washington) Two hundred soldiers of the National Guard arrived near Chicago, an American defense official said on Tuesday, with a view to a deployment requested by Donald Trump that local Democrats dispute.
The American president described the big city in the north of the country as a “war zone” and wants to apply the same solution to it as other democratic cities: soldiers on the streets, very rare in the United States.
These two hundred reservists of the army, from Texas, are responsible for protecting “the actions, agents and property of the federal state” for an “initial duration of 60 days”, detailed this Pentagon official under the cover of anonymity.
They are currently present on an army basis in Elwood, a town one hour from the center of Chicago, noted an AFP photographer.
The Republican President authorized this weekend the deployment of 700 soldiers in Chicago, causing an showdown with local officials from the Democratic Party.
They challenged the legality of the order before the courts, accusing the billionaire of “punishing his political enemies”.
“The Americans, wherever they live, should not live under the threat of an occupation by the military forces of the United States, and even less because their city or their state fell into disgrace with the president,” said the authorities of Chicago and the State of Illinois in their appeal.
They accuse the Trump government of having drawn “pretext” of demonstrations before an immigration police center (ICE) in the suburbs of Chicago to justify the sending of troops.
The federal judge responsible for the file did not rule on Monday, but set a hearing on Thursday.
This weekend, a judge provisionally blocked a deployment similar to Portland (northwest), another democratic city, stressing that there was no “insurrection in Portland or threat to national security”.
Donald Trump has been targeting Chicago for weeks, which he describes as “rats” or “world capital of murder” and announces his intention to deploy soldiers of the National Guard as he did in the Democratic cities of Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis (South), each time against the advice of local authorities.
