“DEFENSE AGAINST UNCONSTITUTIONAL INVASION”: Everything you need to know about the “war” between Trump and the authorities in Chicago!

Now it’s Chicago’s turn, another Democrat-controlled city where US President Trump wants to send the National Guard – against the will of the mayor and the governor. They declared war on Trump and filed a lawsuit.

About 300 members of the National Guard from the state of Illinois should be deployed in Chicago – this was approved by US President Donald Trump. Several hundred more should be sent to the city from Texas.

J. B. Pritzker, the Governor of the state of Illinois, sees an “unconstitutional invasion by the federal government” in Trump’s plans. Illinois has now filed a lawsuit. A few hours earlier, a judge had halted the deployment of the National Guard in the state of Oregon. She also prohibited the sending of soldiers from California to Oregon instead. Trump, according to the Governor of Illinois, is abusing soldiers as a political tool for his unlawful plan to militarize the cities.

The US President has been threatening for weeks to send the National Guard to Chicago, the largest city in Illinois. And for weeks, Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been resisting it – just like other cities and states with Democratic authorities before them.

According to Trump, Chicago resembles a war zone

The National Guard of a US federal state is subordinate to the governor – but in a war or a national emergency, the president can take control. And Trump claims that Chicago resembles a war zone, that it is worse there than in almost any other city in the world. Trump spoke similarly about Los Angeles and Washington, where he also sent the National Guard.

Indeed, protests against the raids by the immigration service ICE have been taking place in Chicago for weeks. Their peak was last week when heavily armed ICE members raided a residential complex overnight.

On that occasion, some of them descended directly from helicopters, as in the movies. Witnesses claim that children were tied with plastic restraints. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says: “That raid was not about security, and certainly not about immigration – it was a demonstration of authoritarianism, of tyranny.”

Is the goal of the ICE agents to provoke resistance?

Critics say that ICE agents are acting increasingly aggressively, as if their goal is to provoke resistance. The Trump administration, on the other hand, presents the protests against the raids as proof that the National Guard is necessary – in order to protect the employees of the immigration service.

The Mayor of Chicago has now established no-go zones for ICE operations. These include schools, public parks, and libraries. This, Johnson says, is supposed to curb federal authorities that have gone out of control. Private institutions can also contact the city to ensure that ICE agents can only enter their property with a search warrant.

US media report that members of the National Guard from Texas are already on their way to Chicago to support the guardsmen from Illinois. The judge deciding on the Illinois lawsuit gave the Trump administration a deadline until Wednesday to respond to the lawsuit. The judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

Where is the National Guard used?

The National Guard is deployed to provide disaster relief – for example, during the devastating forest fires in California in January 2025 or after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

It can also be sent for internal security. During the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, more than 25,000 National Guard members secured the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

The National Guard can also support military missions abroad – which happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trump flirts with the Insurrection Act

Trump has already hinted that he could also apply the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to use the military domestically, for example, to suppress a rebellion.

When asked about it, Trump stated in the Oval Office that it has not been necessary to apply the Insurrection Act so far, but that he would do so if necessary. “If people were being killed, and the courts, governors, or mayors tried to stop us, I would do it, of course,” Trump said. He then added: “We have to make our cities safer.”

His opponents argue, however, that the US President is achieving the exact opposite with his measures.