Ex-President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of state military troops in the Windy City area under orders from the federal administration, despite strong objections from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on that day. "I am staying put."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, stating: "I will not back down. Now Trump is demanding arrests of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What's next on the path to full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation roughly 50 miles from the city, as the administration advances with its hardline urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has labeled Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", despite police data indicate significant drops in many offenses, including homicides.
That day, 200 state guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with another 300 state military personnel readying for deployment, according to sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would protect ICE officers and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were observed at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and essential items. Mobile units were set up in rows. Additional fencing was installed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered flight restrictions over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, triggering protests, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action targeting the federal government, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, asking a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "illegal and risky".
Legal proceedings on their case is set for the next day.
The mayor also signed an executive order on that day prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement actions.
Pritzker has charged Trump of using troops as "political props" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on the previous day, he said that Trump is attempting to "rationalize and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has stated he would be willing to activate the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to dispatch active duty military in regions that are failing to put down an insurrection or are resisting national authority.
After beginning his new administration, the president has dispatched or mentioned deploying military units to over ten urban centers, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is essential to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Statistics shows that serious offenses across the US has declined in recent years. In the city, for example, homicides were reduced 31% to under three hundred through late summer, per law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on Wednesday revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the deployment of military forces without an external threat.
