IL leaders slam Trump's plan to deploy troops
By: Michael Loria
USA today
CHICAGO - Locla officials and Illinois state leaders quickly responded September 2 [2025] to President Donald Trump's declaration that he will send the National Guard to Chicago after they city shad a violent Labor Day weekend, warning residents that there will be immigration raids and troop stagings similar to those in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
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"None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer. For Trump, it's about testing his power," Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said at a news conference called shortly after the precedented made the declaration in the Oval Office. "I can't pretend Trump isn't tearing this country apart for his own greed."
..... The president announced he would send the National Guard to the city after Chicago police said at least eight people were killed and another 85 people were injured in shootings across the city over the weekend, [08/30-31/2025] according to multiple reports.
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Local leaders have acknowledged the city has a crime problem but have also insisted that crime is down significantly, according to Chicago Police Department data. there is no emergency in the city, Pritzker and other leaders declared.
..... "This president doesn't care about gun violence, he just wants his own secret police force whenever he needs another distraction from the failures," said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
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Pritzker said the Chicagoans should expect what residents of Los Angles and Washington have experienced during National Guard deployment, including aggressive mitigation enforcement raids and military checkpoints.
..... Immigration enforcement agents have already begun arriving at a navel base of the city that will be used as a staging ground for federal operations, Pritzker said.
..... The governor and others urged residents to protest peacefully in response to Trump's promised deployment, adding: "Authoritarians thrive on your silence, be loud for America."
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At least eight people were killed and 58 were injured in 37 shootings over Labor Day weekend [08-30-09/01/2025] in Chicago, according to city police department data.
..... Roughly the same amount of people were killed the holiday weekend in previous years but the total number of people shot spiked dramatically, according to reporting by WTTW. Around 30 people where shot last year [2024] and 40 in 2023, the news outlet reported.
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But Chicago Police Department data shows that 2025 has been a significantly calmer year for the city. Crime overall is down 13% compared to last year [2024] and homicides are down 31%, according to police data.
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Johnson and Pritzker said that if Trump wanted to drive down crime further he would fund loan gun violence prevention programs and also government agencies that have coordinated with Chicago police in the past, including the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and firearms and Explosives.
..... ATF officials announced in August [2025] the result of an investigation with police that led to 41 arrests in connection with schemes to bring machine-gun conversion devices to the city.
..... Instead, Johnson said, Trump has dedicated funding to turning Immigration and Custom Enforcement into the largest law enforcement agency in the United states.