Ex-President Donald Trump on midweek called for the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor too!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic faction.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of state military personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, despite strong objections from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump attempted to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on that day. "I am staying anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I will not yield. Trump is now demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What's next on the road toward full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from Texas had arrived at the Elwood training facility, an army base roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the federal government advances with its hardline crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "crime-ridden hellhole", even though police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, including murders.
On Wednesday, 200 state guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred state military forces readying for deployment, per reports. Authorities reportedly stated the troops would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with state guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in the town. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were arranged in lines. Extra barriers was installed around the compound.
Aviation authorities imposed flight restrictions over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
Federal authorities has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, triggering protests, particularly near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city initiated legal action against the federal government, seeking to block the National Guard deployment, asking a court to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "illegal and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is set for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also issued an directive on that day banning ICE officers and others from using municipal facilities as staging areas for enforcement actions.
The governor has accused Trump of using military forces as "political props" and "chess pieces".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, he said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and normalize the deployment of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, the president has stated he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a commander-in-chief to send regular army in states that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying federal law.
Since starting his new administration, Trump has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten cities, including major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the armed forces is necessary to fight violence and protect immigration agents.
Statistics indicates that serious offenses across the US has decreased in recent years. In Chicago, for example, homicides were down nearly one-third to 278 through August, per law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on Wednesday found that the majority of US citizens oppose the sending of military forces without an external threat.
