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Local leaders in Illinois are rejecting President Donald Trump‘s push to send National Guard troops into Chicago, warning that such a move would be both unlawful and destabilizing. The effort could even have ripple effects on the city’s housing and commercial real estate market.
Trump has floated the idea of using the National Guard in Chicago to fight violent crime, address homelessness, and target undocumented immigration. The proposal follows his administration’s deployment of federal law enforcement in Washington, DC, earlier this month, where more than 2,100 officers patrolled the streets and more than 1,000 arrests were made, according to The Hill.
“We’re going to take him to court,” says Gov. JB Pritzker. “There is no law on the books that allows him to put federalized troops on the streets of Chicago. The president of the United States is doing this for theatrics. This is not because we’ve asked for it. It is not because there is some justice that he is going to seek. It is because he wants to create chaos.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson struck a similar tone, emphasizing that the city has received no official notice of any federal action.
“We take President Trump’s statements seriously, but to be clear the City has not received any formal communication from the Trump administration regarding additional federal law enforcement or military deployments to Chicago,” Johnson said in a press release. “Certainly, we have grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the City of Chicago.”
He added that the problem with the president’s approach is that it was both uncoordinated and uncalled for.
“Unlawfully deploying the National Guard to Chicago has the potential to inflame tension between residents and law enforcement when we know that trust between police and residents is foundational to building safer communities,” Johnson said.
The mayor pointed to the city’s recent gains in crime reduction, saying that his administration has reduced homicides by more than 30%, robberies by 35%, and shootings by almost 40% over the past year.
“The threat of federal troops is an unlawful and unsustainable move that would undermine the progress the city has made,” Johnson said.
Homicides in the city are down 7.3% compared with last year, and nonfatal shootings have fallen 3.7%, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. But levels remain slightly above pre-pandemic figures, and violent crime overall is higher than the five-year average, with aggravated assaults, batteries, and robberies driving the increase. The report also noted that Chicago “continues to grapple with inequities tied to race and geography.”
Chicago residents reject the motion
Chicago residents have pushed back against the president’s move to deploy federal troops to the city, with many saying that the federal law enforcement presence would disrupt daily life and is a misuse of resources.
“It’s a terrible idea,” Portage Park resident John Trotti told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I think it’s a misuse of the resources that the military has and the authority that they have over what a state can and can’t do.
“I am not naive that there is crime in the city, but I know that it’s always been used as a talking point to keep people in other locations scared about Chicago. It’s a story to make people believe exaggerated things about this city,” he added.
Some locals are fearful that the National Guard would incite further unnecessary violence and distress within the community.
“I don’t want to feel like I’m in a militarized city,” Henry Thompson, a Chicago resident, told the Sun-Times. “They’re not trained to do police work, so I don’t think it will make the city safer. If anything, with protests that it’s going to provoke, with the distress that it can provoke, someone could get hurt that didn’t need to.”
Thompson’s neighbor, Caroline, said the presence of the federal troops would not make her feel safer.
“It enrages me. There’s no reason for the military to be here,” she said. She hopes that if the troops are deployed, they “know what’s right and wrong and what they’re supposed to be defending, which is our Constitution.”