The Associated Press saw military personnel in uniforms with the Texas National Guard patch at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. On Monday, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted a picture on social media showing National Guard members from his state boarding a plane, but he didn’t specify where they were going.
There was no immediate comment from the office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. But the Democrat had predicted that Illinois National Guard troops would be activated, along with 400 from Texas.
Pritzker has accused Trump of using troops as “political props” and “pawns.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters that the administration isn't sharing much information with the city.
“That is what is so difficult about this moment: You have an administration that is refusing to cooperate with a local authority,” Johnson said Tuesday.
A federal judge gave the Trump administration two days to respond to a lawsuit filed Monday by Illinois and Chicago challenging the plan. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. The lawsuit says, “these advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”
The Trump administration has portrayed cities like Chicago and Portland Oregon as war-ravaged and lawless amid its crackdown on illegal immigration. Officials in Illinois and Oregon, however, say military intervention isn’t needed and that federal involvement is inflaming the situation.
However, ICE agents in Portland and Chicago have faced increasingly violent protesters outside ICE facilities in those cities
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the lawsuit that the First Amendment doesn't protect "rioting.”
