CHICAGO (WLS) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday accused the Trump administration of staging a “military-style invasion” of Chicago, striking fear in residents with “thuggery” tactics by immigration agents and even deploying Black Hawk helicopters to raid an apartment building.
Pritzker slammed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targeting Chicago just hours after the state and City of Chicago filed a lawsuit seeking to block the federalization and deployment of the National Guard.
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“Let me be clear, Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said during a news conference in the West Loop on Monday afternoon.
To support his point, Pritzker played a video of an ICE raid conducted last week on an apartment complex in the South Shore neighborhood he claimed was filmed by federal authorities with high-definition cameras for social media purposes. He said it was the same video Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on social media on Saturday.
“They brought Black Hawk military helicopters and more than 100 agents in full tactical gear,” Pritzker said.
He added, “In the dead of night and seemingly for the cameras, armed federal agents emerged from the Black Hawk helicopters, rappelling onto the roof of that apartment building.”
The governor alleged the Trump administration is following a playbook to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them.”
Gov. Pritzker and other local leaders spoke on troops coming to Illinois.
“Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city,” Pritzker said.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a press release on Monday, claiming to debunk a “smorgasbord of lies” told by the governor.
“Our message to JB Pritzker: Get out of your mansion and see Chicago,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in the release. “If J.B. Pritzker actually walked the streets of his own city, he would see domestic terrorists and violent rioters attacking police officers and the scourge of violent crime as a direct result of his own policies.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act, but “if I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller on Monday cited two incidents over the weekend in which protesters rammed the vehicles of immigration agents in Chicago, prompting the shooting of one protester, who federal authorities alleged was driving one of the vehicles and was armed.
“The struggle that is taking place right now is between the lawful exercise of power by the American people through a duly elected government versus the unlawful exercise of street violence in the form of domestic terrorism,” Miller told reporters at the White House.
Miller added, “The clearest example of this is when you have ICE officers, who are carrying out the statutes and the laws of the United States to arrest and remove illegal aliens, who are being subjected to violent attacks in the conduct of their duties. That’s an example of illegitimate violence, illegitimate power in the form of domestic terrorism being used to impede the conduct of their official duties.”
City and state sue to block deployment of National Guard as troops could arrive Monday
The White House is calling a Trump-appointed federal judge’s decision to block the National Guard from being deployed to Oregon “untethered in reality.”
Meanwhile, Chicago and Illinois are joining forces to sue the Trump administration to block the president from sending the National Guard to Chicago.
The lawsuit accuses the president and members of his cabinet of targeting Illinois and Chicago for federalized troops because the Democratic leaders here have “fallen out of the president’s favor.”
Pritzker fired back at the Trump administration over their plans to send 700 National Guard troops — 300 from Illinois and 400 from Texas — to Chicago. The governor accused the president of creating a crisis as justification for sending in troops.
This all comes just days after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came to Chicago. Pritzker says his office has not received any calls from the feds, and has remained adamant that the National Guard is not needed in the Chicago area.
“The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get Noem’s thugs the hell out of Chicago,” Pritzker said.
The Guard is reportedly coming to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, who have frequently deployed tear gas in confrontations with demonstrators outside the immigration processing facility in Broadview.
The 67-page lawsuit cites Trump’s recent comments that Democratic cities like Chicago should be used as a training ground for the military. It contends that the escalating conflicts between ICE agents and protesters are a flimsy argument for sending in troops.
“These advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous,” the suit says.
Lawyers for the city and state were in federal court on Monday afternoon to ask for a TRO to prevent the troop deployment.
“There is no need or justification for a militarized response to anything going on in Chicago,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “This is not about an emergency. This is a political targeting utilizing our military.”
“With today’s litigation, we send a message to the president: Chicago will not be used as a political prop. Chicago will not be intimidated,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
But Judge April Perry, appointed by former President Joe Biden, denied that request and gave the federal government two days to respond. The White House defended the move.
“The president is using his authority as commander in chief, U.S. code 12-406, which clearly states that the president has the right to call up the National Guard in cases where he deems it’s appropriate,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Some Republicans say that maybe Chicago does need the Guard to get things under control and to protect federal agents.
“Unfortunately, the protests are getting violent, so ICE needs and ICE has a right to protect their own property, and so they need some assistance,” said Illinois House Republican Leader Tony McCombie.
But the president cited Chicago’s murder rate, which Chicago police say is falling, rather than protection for ICE operations, for why the guard is needed.
On Monday afternoon, Trump continued his verbal attacks on Chicago.
“Chicago is a war zone,” Trump said. “Why is it that a governor wouldn’t accept free help from regardless, I mean whether it’s National Guard or the military or anybody?”
Pritzker pushed back, saying, “Donald Trump’s deranged depiction of Chicago as a hellhole, a war zone and the worst and most dangerous city in the world is just complete BS.”
In court, ABC7 learned that National Guard troops from Texas are expected to arrive in Illinois on Monday night.
Perry called the developments about the deployment “problematic” but said she would need more time to let both sides brief her on the issues. She scheduled oral arguments for Thursday.
Johnson signs ‘ICE free zone’ executive order
The state of Illinois and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Monday to block Trump’s deployment of the National Guard.
Earlier Monday, Johnson, surrounded by a host of elected and community leaders, signed an executive order that bans federal agents from using any city property as staging grounds for immigration enforcement activities.
“We have a rogue, reckless group of heavily armed, masked individuals roaming throughout our city that are not accountable to the people of Chicago,” Johnson said. “We cannot allow them to rampage throughout our city with no checks or balances. Nobody is above the law.”
The order states that city departments must identify city properties that have been or could be used by immigration enforcement, post signage and use physical barriers, such as locked gates, to restrict unauthorized access. Officials also must immediately report any use of city property.
The executive order “does not limit or restrict the execution of lawful judicial warrants or legitimate criminal investigations. It applies only to civil immigration enforcement.”
Private businesses can also request a sign if they want to protect their property. Participation of placing signs up is voluntary, the mayor’s office said.
“The signage clearly states that no law enforcement official may enter for the purpose of civil immigration enforcement and that the property may not be used as a staging area, processing location, or operations base,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a release.
The Chicago mayor’s office said it would also distribute free official signage that private landowners can post on their property to designate an “ICE free zone.”
Miller fired back, saying, “The mayor of Chicago has not only failed to condemn the violent obstructive acts against ICE and law enforcement… He issued a no-go zone for ICE officers.”
The White House said in a statement, “Today, in a disgusting betrayal of every law-abiding citizen, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared city spaces as ‘ICE-free zones.’ Johnson’s pathetic excuse that enforcing our nation’s immigration laws somehow ‘undermines community trust’ exposes his true loyalty: to criminal illegal alien predators, not the terrified families of Chicago.
Shielding the most depraved, violent criminal illegal aliens from justice is not only an insult to every Chicagoan, it’s also a dangerous intensification of Democrats’ lunatic ‘sanctuary’ agenda where criminal illegals come before American citizens.”
ABC News contributed to this report.
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