According to Xinhua News Agency, the White House announced on the 4th that President Trump has authorized the dispatch of 300 Illinois National Guard members to "protect" federal officials and assets in Chicago. According to a White House spokesman, Illinois officials "stayed out of the way" in the face of the "riots" in Chicago, but President Trump "won't turn a blind eye".
Tensions have escalated in recent times between federal officials assigned to crack down on illegal immigration in Chicago and local residents. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a car carrying federal officials was hit and surrounded by multiple vehicles in Chicago on the 4th. Federal officials opened fire and injured an American woman.
Federal law enforcement "spreads fear"
Chicago is the largest city in Illinois and the third largest city in the United States. Trump named and criticized Chicago in early September, calling it the "worst and most dangerous" city in the world, and said he would deploy National Guard troops there to fight crime. The Democratic mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois have repeatedly opposed this, arguing that it could "aggravate tensions between residents and law enforcement."
According to U.S. Cable News Network, federal law enforcement officers have arrested suspicious people in several locations in Chicago. A few days ago, law enforcement officers raided an apartment building late at night and arrested 37 unidentified persons and some U.S. citizens. During the law enforcement process, they pulled adults and children together out of the room, crying and screaming on the spot, "Black Eagle" helicopters were rotating nearby. Witnesses said that the scene looked like a military "invasion".
Democratic federal senator Dick Debin said federal law enforcement officers intimidated ordinary people in ways such as late-night raids, a “shameful” scene in U.S. history. President Trump’s intention was “not to fight crime,” but “to spread fear.”
In Chicago, protests against federal law enforcement continued, while law enforcement responded with force and tear gas. A Reuters video showed protesters screaming, hiding, and fleeing. A woman stressed to reporters at the scene that this is “not a war zone.”
Demonstrators frequently gathered outside an immigration and customs enforcement facility near Chicago, and 13 people were arrested on Tuesday.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Terry McLaughlin, said on social media on Thursday that a gun-held woman, along with a driver of at least 10 cars, struck and encircled a car carrying federal law enforcement officers. Confiscated federal officers shot themselves and wounded the woman. McLaughlin did not specify the agency to which the gunmen belonged. She accused Chicago police of leaving the scene and refusing to assist federal law enforcement. Chicago police rejected their “reaction to the scene, recording the situation at the time” andining order, the shooting now being investigated by federal agencies.
The Governor’s “Ultimate Communiqué”
White House spokesman Abigail Jackson accused local officials, including Illinois Governor Pritzke, of failing to "set the riots down", while Pritzker criticized the federal government's actions to combat illegal immigration, not only to stabilize the public, but to scare everyone.
Before the White House announced the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago, Pritzker said: "This morning, the Trump administration's' Department of War 'gave me an ultimatum: gather your troops, or we will do it. It is absolutely intolerable and not American to ask a governor to send troops in the state against his will."
According to the Associated Press, after taking office, Trump has sent or threatened to send troops to several cities ruled by the Democratic Party, including Washington, Los Angeles, California, Baltimore, Maryland and Memphis, Tennessee.
California and Washington have filed lawsuits regarding the Trump administration's forced deployment of the National Guard. A federal judge in California ruled in September that Trump's deployment of troops in the Los Angeles area violated the Local Guard Act of 1878. This law prohibits the use of U.S. military forces to participate in domestic law enforcement without the consent of Congress.
Oregon's federal district judge, Karin Immergett, issued a two-week temporary restriction order on Monday to prevent the Trump administration from implementing a plan to send 200 National Guard personnel to the state's city of Portland.