Ex-President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump posted on social media early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of state military personnel in the Windy City area under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man unjustly detained," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I am staying put."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, stating: "I will not back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the path to full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from Texas had reached the Elwood army reserve center, an army base roughly 50 miles from the city, as the administration pushes forward with its hardline urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though police data indicate notable reductions in many offenses, including homicides.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard personnel readying for deployment, according to sources. Authorities indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers in combat attire with state guard patches were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" dropped off portable toilets and essential items. Mobile units were set up in rows. Extra barriers was placed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities ordered flight restrictions over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, sparking protests, particularly near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, labeling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also signed an directive on Monday prohibiting federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for enforcement actions.
The governor has charged the president of using troops as "political props" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of military personnel under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has said he would be prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a commander-in-chief to dispatch regular army in regions that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are defying national authority.
After beginning his second term, the president has sent or mentioned sending troops to over ten urban centers, including Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, arguing that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Statistics shows that most violent crime across the US has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for instance, homicides were reduced 31% to under three hundred through late summer, according to police data.
A recent poll released on Wednesday revealed that the majority of US citizens oppose the sending of military forces without an external threat.
