Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding federal immigration officers.
"Chicago's Mayor belongs behind bars for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump posted on his platform Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker too!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic faction.
Trump's statements coincide with the arrival of National Guard troops in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have an African American leader unjustly detained," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to yield. Trump is now calling for imprisonment of democratically chosen representatives resisting his authority. What's next on the road toward complete autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from the Lone Star State 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 mass deportation efforts.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", even though official statistics indicate significant drops in many offenses, including homicides.
That day, 200 Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred state military forces preparing to mobilize, according to sources. Officials reportedly stated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard insignia were observed at the military facility in the town. Vehicles marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were set up in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities imposed flight restrictions over the military base for security reasons until 6 December.
Federal authorities has escalated immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, triggering protests, particularly near an immigration center in Broadview.
On Monday, state and city initiated legal action targeting the administration, attempting to halt the military dispatch, urging a federal judge to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "illegal and risky".
A court hearing on their case is set for the next day.
The mayor also signed an executive order on that day prohibiting federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for enforcement actions.
The governor has charged Trump of using military forces as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "justify and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The historic federal law limits the military's role in civilian law enforcement. However, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to send active duty military in states that are unable to put down an uprising or are defying national authority.
After beginning his second term, the president has dispatched or discussed deploying troops to over ten cities, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and defend immigration agents.
Statistics indicates that most violent crime across the US has declined in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, per police data.
New survey data released on that day found that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the deployment of military forces without an external threat.
