National Guard troops are positioned outside Chicago and they could be in Memphis by Friday as the Trump administration pushes ahead with an aggressive policy toward big-city crime whether local leaders support it or not.
National Guard members from Texas had settled in at an Army Reserve centre in Illinois by early Wednesday, despite a lawsuit and vigorous opposition from Democratic elected leaders.
Their exact mission was not clear, though the Trump administration has an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation’s third-largest city, and protesters have frequently rallied at an immigration building outside Chicago in Broadview.
The president has called Chicago a “hell hole” of crime, although police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including homicides. In Memphis, Tennessee, police Chief Cerelyn Davis said a small group of commanders were already in the city, planning for the arrival of Guard troops. Republican Governor Bill Lee has said troops will be deputised by the US Marshals Service to “play a critical support role” for local law enforcement, though that role hasn’t been precisely defined yet. President Donald Trump’s bid to deploy the military on US soil over local opposition has triggered a conflict with blue State governors.
Illinois and Chicago are urging a federal judge to stop “Trump’s long-declared War’” on the State. A court hearing on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday. In Oregon, a judge over the weekend blocked the Guard’s deployment to Portland. Illinois Govenor JB Pritzker has predicted that National Guard troops from the state would be activated, along with 400 from Texas. He has accused Trump of using troops as “political props” and “pawns,” and said he didn’t get a heads-up from Washington about their deployment.
The Associated Press saw military personnel in uniforms with the Texas National Guard patch at the US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 89 kilometres southwest of Chicago.
Trucks marked Emergency Disaster Services dropped off portable toilets and other supplies. Trailers were set up in rows. Extra fencing was spread across the perimeter.
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active-duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered flight restrictions over the Army Reserve Center for security reasons until December 6.
Armed Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous landmarks has amplified concerns after an immigration crackdown that began last month.
Agents have targeted immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Monday barring federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property as staging areas for enforcement operations.
Since starting his second term, Trump has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most violent crime around the US has declined in recent years. In Chicago, homicides were down 31 per cent to 278 through August, police data shows.