Chicago mayor announces measures to ‘protect our people’ from imminent influx of federal agents on Trump’s orders
Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order to take “immediate, drastic action” to protect the city’s people before the Trump administration deploys the military, possibly in the coming days.
After deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump has threatened to target Chicago next.
“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks before our city, sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Johnson warned Saturday. “It is unclear at this time, what that will look like. We must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”
Trump previously called Chicago a “mess” as he hit out at Johnson’s leadership.
“Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we’ll straighten that one out probably next,” Trump threatened.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that the administration had asked a military base outside Chicago for assistance with immigration operations in the city.
Border Czar Tom Homan said this week that “a large contingent” of ICE officers would be sent to Chicago, but did not say how many.
The Times estimated that around 200 homeland security officials would be sent to the Midwest city.
The administration could also federalize the Illinois National Guard and send members in, along with other branches of federal law enforcement, such as agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Explosives and Firearms.
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