Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of National Guard personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, despite strong objections from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump attempted to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Johnson responded on that day. "I am staying put."
The governor responded via online channels, stating: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the path to complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, National Guard units from Texas had arrived at the Elwood training facility, an army base roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, such as homicides.
On Wednesday, 200 Texas National Guard members were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred state military forces preparing to mobilize, according to reports. Authorities indicated the soldiers would avoid police functions but would secure ICE officers and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were arranged in lines. Additional fencing was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
The administration has intensified immigration enforcement in the city in the past month, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an immigration center in Broadview.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action against the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, calling it "unlawful and risky".
A court hearing on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also issued an directive on Monday prohibiting ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has accused the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, he said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the deployment of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law restricts the army's involvement in civilian law enforcement. Yet, the president has said he would be willing to activate the Insurrection Act, which allows a commander-in-chief to dispatch regular army in regions that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are resisting national authority.
After beginning his new administration, Trump has sent or mentioned deploying troops to over ten urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the military presence is essential to combat crime and protect immigration agents.
Statistics shows that serious offenses across the US has decreased in recent years. In Chicago, for example, homicides were reduced 31% to 278 through late summer, per law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on that day found that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the deployment of military forces without an external threat.