Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Saturday aimed at curbing the power of federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops that he said President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy to Illinois.
“We find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach,” Johnson, a Democrat, said in a press conference.
One of the main points of the order, Johnson said, was to direct the city’s law department to use “every legal mechanism” to try to stop Trump’s potential plan.
Johnson added later that he would use “every single tool that is at our disposal, and that includes the courts.”
“It’s an area in which at least there’s some semblance of check and balance in this country,” he said.
The executive order also includes a litany of other directives, Johnson said, including clarifying what actions Chicago’s police officers can take to assist federal law enforcement and prohibiting them from covering their faces or the police department’s logo on their uniforms.
“This order affirms that the Chicago Police Department will not collaborate with military personnel on police patrols or civil immigration enforcement. We will not have our police officers, who are working hard every single day to drive down crime, deputized to do traffic stops and checkpoints for the president,” Johnson said at the press conference.
Johnson’s move comes as the president has already deployed troops and federal law enforcement to Washington, D.C., and as he’s increasingly threatened to do the same in other major American cities, like Baltimore.
Most Democratic officials have so far pushed back on Trump’s threats to send troops to American cities, with over a dozen Democratic governors on Thursday releasing a statement condemning the president’s actions.
“Whether it’s Illinois, Maryland and New York or another state tomorrow, the President’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members,” the governors said in the statement. “This chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard must come to an end.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser said earlier this week that the federal surge had lowered crime but the presence of immigration officers and National Guard troops wasn’t working.
“What we know is not working is a break in trust between police and community, especially with new federal partners in our community,” Bowser told reporters last week. “We know having masked ICE agents in the community has not worked, and National Guards from other states has not been an efficient use of those resources.”
Trump has not announced plans to send federal law enforcement or National Guard troops to Chicago, but The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the Pentagon was deeply involved in planning a military deployment to the city.
Earlier this week, NBC News reported that federal authorities plan to surge agents to Chicago as soon as next week to ramp up arrests of unauthorized immigrants.
Johnson on Saturday said that the city has “received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our cities see some type of militarized activity by the federal government.”
“It is unclear at this time what that will look like exactly. We may see militarized immigration enforcement. We may also see National Guard troops. We may even see active-duty military and armed vehicles in our streets,” Johnson added.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson on Saturday responded to Johnson’s announcement, accusing the mayor of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer. Cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue, but Democrats suffering from TDS are trying to make it one,” Jackson said, adding: “They should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington DC.”
On Friday, Trump border czar Tom Homan told Fox News that the administration was looking into action in Chicago.
“Chicago is coming, along with every other sanctuary city,” Homan said. “President Trump is committed that we’re going to focus on and prioritize sanctuary cities because that is where the problem is.”
“Get out of the way, because we’re going to do it,” Homan said later when asked about potential pushback from local officials.
Earlier this month, the president deployed National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to Washington, D.C., in what he has called an effort to fight crime. Troops and federal officials deployed with the Metropolitan Police Department to several areas of the nation’s capital.
So far, he’s only deployed federal officers and National Guard troops to Washington as part of his stated crime-fighting plan, though earlier this year Trump federalized California’s National Guard, despite the opposition of Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., sending troops to Los Angeles to quell protests against the administration’s immigration enforcement actions.
Earlier this week, during an event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Vice President JD Vance spoke about the president’s plans to send troops into other American cities, telling the crowd that he didn’t expect Trump to “force” troops on governors and mayors who didn’t want them.
“What the president has said is that, very simply, we want governors and mayors to ask for the help,” Vance said, adding later: “The president of the United States is not going out there forcing this on anybody, though we do think that we have the legal right to clean up America’s streets if we want to. But what the president has said is, very simply, is, Why don’t you invite us in?”
The vice president later referenced Chicago specifically, telling attendees, “We’re not too far from Chicago. Chicago’s had a lot of crime problems. Why is it that you have mayors and governors who are angrier about Donald Trump offering to help them than they are about the fact that their own residents are being carjacked and murdered in the streets? It doesn’t make an ounce of sense.”
