Immigration officers have been out in force around Chicago for weeks, arresting hundreds of people. Protesters have marched repeatedly, clashing at times with federal agents. And in recent days, President Trump has sent National Guard troops to Illinois and suggested that top Democrats there should be jailed.
Against that tense backdrop, a federal judge will hear arguments on Thursday about whether to block the deployment of the Guard, which Illinois officials have called a violation of state sovereignty and the Trump administration has defended as necessary for safety.
The judge, April M. Perry, a Biden appointee, heard a first round of arguments on the issue on Monday but declined to issue an immediate ruling. In the days since, National Guard troops from Texas and Illinois have mobilized in the region, with some staging at an Army Reserve facility about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.
The deployment in Illinois over the objection of Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, follows efforts by the Trump administration to send troops into two other Democratic-led states, California and Oregon, without the support of state officials.
Last weekend, a federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the president’s deployment of troops into Portland. A federal appellate panel is scheduled to consider the Trump administration’s appeal of the Oregon ruling on Thursday at the same time as the hearing in Judge Perry’s Illinois courtroom.
The move to use the Guard in the Chicago area comes weeks into an Illinois immigration enforcement campaign that has infuriated state and local officials and left residents on edge. President Trump has long spoken out about crime in Chicago, describing the city in harsh terms and criticizing state and local laws that limit coordination with immigration agents. On Wednesday, the president posted on social media that he believed Mr. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, both Democrats, “should be in jail” for what he described as “failing to protect ICE Officers!”
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The post Judge to Hear Arguments on Whether Guard Troops Near Chicago Can Stay appeared first on New York Times.
