CHICAGO — President Donald Trump intends to federalize and call up 300 members of Illinois’ National Guard over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections, the governor announced Saturday, the latest escalation in the administration’s nearly monthlong mass deportation effort that has hit Chicago neighborhoods and scores of suburbs.

“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a Saturday afternoon statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

The Trump administration’s plans to “pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance — not a serious effort (to) protect public safety,” Pritzker said.

The governor added that “there is no need for military troops on the ground in the State of Illinois.” He said state, county, and local law enforcement have been coordinating to ensure the constitutional rights and public safety are preserved around the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency facility in west suburban Broadview, where sizable protests have routinely resulted in activists and residents being tear gassed and shot with pepper balls and other projectiles.

“I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people,” Pritzker said.

Saturday’s announcement comes just days after Pritzker said he had received a report that federal authorities were seeking to deploy 100 troops to Illinois in support of “Operation Midway Blitz,” the anti-illegal immigration action that began Sept. 8 and has resulted in more than 800 arrests, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A memo sent Sept. 26 by DHS to the Department of War, which has been obtained by the Tribune, stated that the troops were needed to protect ICE personnel and facilities.

The federal operations have cast a wide net across the Chicago region and while Trump officials claim they are arresting “the worst of the worst,” ICE and federal Border Patrol agents have been accused of repeatedly arresting and detaining American citizens and individuals who did not have criminal backgrounds.

Following the governor’s announcement, Democratic leaders in Illinois criticized any effort to deploy troops to the state.

“Donald Trump federalizing the Illinois National Guard is a dangerous, un-American, and unconstitutional abuse of our military, intended to instill fear and threaten American civil rights,” said U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth. “Our military men and women signed up to defend the constitution and our rights, not be used as political props or to silence dissent. Illinois does not want or need troops in our cities. Full stop.”

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running for Senate to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, said in a statement that Trump is “playing dictator and abusing his powers.”

“President Trump is bringing war to Chicago. He’s called our city violent and out of control, yet he is the one who has endangered our communities, terrorized immigrants, and wreaked chaos,” she said.

Another Senate candidate, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, said, “Our city is not a sandbox for Donald Trump to play dictator. It’s intentional cruelty that will devastate families and scar our communities.”

Hands Off Chicago, a group supported by a number of nonprofits, advocacy organizations and unions, called for a stronger state response.

“Advocacy organizations, elected leaders, faith leaders, labor, business, community groups, and more have and will continue to peacefully exercise our constitutional rights in protest of military occupation by the Trump Administration,” the group said. “We urge our state and local elected leaders to think creatively and aggressively about the assets available to warn residents and protect peaceful protestors. Simply asking people to know their rights and speak out has already proven insufficient.”

Trump’s latest apparent threat to send Illinois National Guard troops, despite the governor’s objections, is unprecedented in Illinois. The state has stated that it has no historical record of its National Guard being federalized for an in-state response without the governor’s request or agreement.

Trump in August threatened to send National Guard troops to Chicago. At first, he said it was to tamp down overall crime, following up on his moves to deploy troops in Washington, D.C. The administration later revised that messaging, saying troops were needed to protect immigration officers and buildings.

As the White House has pushed for more deportations, the president has also slammed sanctuary laws across the nation, including in Chicago and Illinois, that prevent local law enforcement to work with federal agents on immigration enforcement. Under Illinois’ TRUST Act, signed into law in 2017 by a Republican governor, local and state law enforcement agencies are generally prohibited from assisting federal immigration enforcement with deportations or similar tasks.

Meanwhile, federal law enforcement presence has also grown more visible in recent weeks with agents and officers seen walking through downtown Chicago and driving into numerous Latino neighborhoods and suburbs with significant Latino populations to stop people and make arrests. Multiple videos on social media have shown agents arresting people on the street while being met with jeers and other resistance from passersby and residents.

In the last 60 years, the Illinois National Guard has been called to Chicago largely to deal with rioting and other unrest. As word spread of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in April 1968, for instance, riots and looting took place across the country, including in Chicago. At that time, the National Guard began as a state-active duty mission at the request of the governor’s office but were later placed on federal orders for the remainder of their response.

During the unrest that came during the Democratic National Convention later that year, Gov. Samuel Shapiro ordered thousands of National Guard troops to assist the almost 12,000 Chicago police officers, 1,000 federal agents and 7,500 U.S. soldiers already on duty to maintain law and order during the convention.

More recently, the Illinois National Guard was on the ground as the state administered thousands of COVID-19 tests, with nearly 3,000 guardsmen aiding in various missions across the state, including conducting about 233,000 tests. It marked the first time the soldiers and airmen had been mobilized primarily to combat a medical issue in the state of Illinois.

Following a request from then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Pritzker called for 375 Illinois National Guard members to assist local police in quelling protests following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 in Minnesota. The following year, the governor activated 125 members of the National Guard again at Lightfoot’s request ahead of the guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis cop convicted in Floyd’s murder.

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