Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago has rejected the Trump administration’s plans to send troops or militarized federal agents to his city for immigration enforcement, and ordered local police officers not to aid the federal crackdown.
The mayor’s executive order, signed on Saturday, steps up the tensions between the White House and state and local officials. It comes after President Trump said he would send troops to Chicago and New York, as he did to Washington, D.C., in August and to Los Angeles in June.
The mayor’s order said the city would pursue “all available legal and legislative avenues” to resist actions by the federal government “that violate the rights of the City and its residents, including the Constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest and the right to due process.”
“Federal law prohibits the use of U.S. Military for domestic law enforcement except in extraordinary circumstances — which do not exist in Chicago,” the order said.
Crime in Chicago has fallen in nearly every major category over the past year, according to city figures, and murders are down 50 percent from their peak during the pandemic.
At a news conference last week alongside other city and state leaders, Mayor Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, who are both Democrats, denounced Mr. Trump’s threat to send troops. But Mr. Trump repeated his threat in a social media post on Saturday, saying the governor needed to take action to prevent crime “or we’re coming!”
Mr. Johnson’s executive order said that federal agents should comply with city policies that prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing masks to intentionally disguise or conceal their identities. It also calls for the city to take steps to ensure that residents know their rights when encountering federal agents.
“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Mr. Johnson told reporters on Saturday. “We have not called for this.”
Chicago has clashed with the Trump administration over the city’s sanctuary laws for immigrants. Illinois and Chicago limit how city agencies may interact with federal immigration authorities; the White House says that a lack of cooperation at the local and state levels impedes federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Sonia A. Rao reports on disability issues as a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
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