Guard asked to deploy to Chicago

Illinois governor says move 'is about sowing fear and intimidation'

By: Michael Loria
USA Today

CHICAGO - Illinois Governor JB Pritzker told reporters on September 29 [2025] that he had just learned that the department of Homeland Security asked the National Guard to deploy to the region, despite vociferous objections from the area's leaders.
..... "What I have been warning of is now being realized," Pritzker said at a news conference. "This is not about fighting crime, this is about sowing fear and intimidation among Americans. ... This is about consolidation power in Donald Trump's hands."
..... The governor said the DHS sent a memo to the Department of War, formerly the Department of Defense, requesting 100 troops form the Illinois National Guard. The troops, Pritzker said, are to be used to support Immigration and Customs enforcement agents carrying out the president's Chicago-area immigration enforcement crackdown known as Operation Midway Blitz.
..... Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Farnell confirmed that the Department of War had received a request for troops. Parnell did not say if National Guard would be deployed.
..... "The Department of War has received a request for assistance to safeguard Federal personnel, property and functions in the state of Illinois," Parnell said. "Any decisions will be made in accordance with established processes and announced at the appropriate time."
..... Trump has been saying since early September [2025] that he planned to send the National Guard to Chicago, but the White House had not deployed troops over the objections of the area's leaders. Illinois officials fear that Trump is using clashes between federal agents and anti-Immigration enforcement protesters as justification to deploy soldiers.
..... The president said the operation is aimed at catching "the worst of the worst" criminals who are immigrants. Illinois leaders have said the Republican president's goal is to take control of the heavily Democratic region.
..... Illinois officials did not say when exactly National Guard members would deploy.
..... Pritzker said the memo from Homelands Security to the War Department was the same avenue taken to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he was prepared to file a lawsuit against the White House if troops did deploy.
..... In addition to Pritzker and Raoul, the September 29 [2025] news conference included Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook county President Toni Preckwinkle and Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, who village outside Chicago has become a hotbed of immigration enforcement and protest.
..... The expected Nations Guard deployment comes about three weeks into the launch of Operation Midway Blitz.
..... DHS officials said more than 700 immigrants have been detained in connection with the operation. The federal immigration enforcement crackdown reflects a significant change of pace for the longtime sanctuary city of Chicago and surrounding areas.
..... Research complied by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group that tracks mitigation enforcement data shows that over 6,000 people being detained have gone through the region's ICE facility in Broadview.
..... The crackdown has sparked nearly around-the-clock protests at the facility.
..... DHS officials have called protesters "rioters," arrested multiple people and charged at least two protesters with assault. Authorities say they brought handguns to the demonstration.
..... Federal agents have used chemical agents, including pepper spay and tar gas, to disperse Chicago protesters blocking mitigation enforcement vehicles. Agents on September 26 [2025] also fired chemical agents at protesters and journalists stagnation in a road leading up to the immigration enforcement facility in Broadview.
..... "What we're seeing is our First Amendment rights being eroded by an authoritarian administration determined to diminish dissent," state Senator Karina Villa told reporters on September 29. [2205] the Illinois state senator's heavily Latino district has seen significant immigration enforcement activity."
..... Broadview officials said the village police department is investigating federal agents for firing crowd control weapons at a news reporter's vehicle. DHS officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the investigation.
..... DHS officials have said the Midway Blitz is necessary to catch criminal immigrants, and among the high-profile arrest was they tout are people whose criminal history, according to immigration authorities, includes sexual abuse of a child, domestic violence and battery.
..... But people from the Chicago are say innocent people are being targeted simply based on the color of their skin.
..... "If you look like me, you are in danger," said Erendira Rendon, a native of Mexico who is a prominent immigrant advocate in Chicago. Rendon broke down in tears on September 29 [2025] as she read aloud a list of names of people taken by immigration agents. "DHS terrorizes our communities and showcases our pain on social media.
..... Research data from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, shows that in focal year 2025, 65% of migration detainees have no criminal convictions and 93% have no violent convictions.
..... Among people Chicagoans hold up as examples of innocent people detained are Laura Murillo, a popular South Side tamale vendor who was detained on September 25, and Silverrio Villegas Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant who was fatally shot by an immigration agent on September 12 [2025] after dropping his sons off at school, according to supporters.
..... "They're not targeting violent criminals or gang members," Pritzker said. "They're targeting tamale vendors."

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