Journalism of Courage
The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Monday to stop US President Donald Trump’s administration from deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.
The lawsuit came just as the troops were preparing to move in, hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked a similar deployment to Portland, Oregon.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said about 300 Illinois National Guard troops were to be federalised and sent to Chicago, along with 400 others from Texas. The lawsuit called Trump’s plan “unlawful and dangerous” and accused him of targeting cities that oppose him politically.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military,” the lawsuit said.
Pritzker described the move as “Trump’s invasion” and urged Texas Governor Greg Abbott to stop it. Abbott rejected the request, saying the deployment was needed to protect federal workers involved in immigration enforcement.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that President Trump had approved the use of Illinois National Guard members, saying the decision followed “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders had failed to control.
In recent weeks, Chicago residents have expressed concern over an increased federal presence in the city, including armed Border Patrol agents making arrests near major landmarks. The immigration crackdown, which began last month, has largely focused on Latino neighbourhoods.
Federal officials said 13 protesters were arrested on Friday outside a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview. The Department of Homeland Security said a Border Patrol agent shot a woman on Chicago’s southwest side on Saturday after agents’ vehicles were “rammed and boxed in by 10 cars.” No officers were seriously injured, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
In Portland, US District Judge Karin Immergut granted Oregon and California a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to the city. She questioned whether the Trump administration was trying to bypass her earlier order.
“Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” Immergut asked during a hearing. “Why is this appropriate?”
Local officials in Portland said many of the president’s claims about unrest in the city rely on old images from 2020. They said crime has fallen and downtown areas have improved under the current mayor.
A recent report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association showed that homicides in Portland dropped by 51% between January and June this year compared with the same period in 2024.
Since beginning his second term, President Trump has ordered troop deployments to at least 10 US cities, including Baltimore, Memphis, Washington, DC, New Orleans and several in California.
Last month, a federal judge ruled that the administration had “wilfully” broken federal law by sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles during protests over immigration raids, according to the Associated Press (AP).
