ALBAWABA- In a dramatic escalation of his administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement in Democratic strongholds, President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump accused the officials of failing to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during protests outside federal facilities in the city.
Trump also reiterated threats to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th-century law permitting the president to deploy active-duty military forces domestically without state consent, saying he would act “if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”
The comments coincided with the arrival of hundreds of Texas National Guard troops at an Army Reserve training center in the Chicago suburbs, preparing for potential deployment to support ICE raids.
The operations, which have already sparked clashes with demonstrators, included allegations of excessive force such as tear gas use and Black Hawk helicopter involvement.
Governor Pritzker, a vocal critic of Trump’s tactics, called the deployment a “military-style invasion” aimed at manufacturing chaos to justify broader federal intervention.
He and city officials have filed lawsuits to block the federalization of troops, pledging to resist what they describe as an “authoritarian march.”
Since assuming office for a second term in January 2025, Trump has sought domestic deployment of military and National Guard units to at least ten U.S. cities, citing unrest tied to immigration enforcement, protests, and crime as justification to bypass state governors.
