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Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday said his administration has learned the Trump administration is seeking to deploy 100 troops in Illinois, following the deployment of armed federal agents in downtown Chicago over the weekend, and multiple clashes between protesters and ICE agents in west suburban Broadview in recent weeks.
Pritzker said the Illinois National Guard has learned the Department of Homeland Security sent a memo to the Pentagon, requesting the deployment of 100 military troops in Illinois to protect ICE personnel and facilities. The governor’s office said it’s unclear if those troops would be Illinois National Guard, National Guard members from other states, or active-duty military troops.
“What I have warned of is now being realized. One thing is clear: none of what Trump is doing is making Illinois safer,” Pritzker said. “This is an attack on neighborhoods, on lawful residents, on U.S. citizens. That’s not preventing crime, as Donald Trump claims, that’s threatening public safety. But as I’ve said many times, for Donald Trump and the MAGAs in Congress, this is not about fighting crime or about public safety. This is about sowing fear and intimidation and division among Americans. It was about creating a pretext to send armed miliary troops into our communities. This is about consolidating power in Donald Trump’s hands.”
Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson both have repeatedly said that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, and his repeated threats to send in troops have nothing to do with public safety.
“This is about money, politics, and power. The president is using his militarized force the exact way he intended – to advance his political goals. He wants to militarize our cities, whether that’s through ICE or through the National Guard or the United States Army or Armed Forces. He wants to provoked armed conflict so that he can use this as a protect to send even more federal agents into our city,” Johnson said on Monday.
CBS News Chicago is reaching out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon for a response.
Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the state is prepared to take the Trump administration to court if they follow through with an actual deployment of troops.
On Sunday, the state of Oregon announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the president said he will send troops to Portland to protect federal property amid ongoing protests. The lawsuit argued that President Trump lacks authority to federalize the National Guard. California filed a similar lawsuit in June after the administration sent troops to Los Angeles, and earlier this month a federal judge ruled that deployment violated federal law.
Raoul said, while the memo the Illinois National Guard has learned about is not enough to take the Trump administration to court, his office is ready to file a lawsuit if the Pentagon takes more concrete steps.
“We are prepared. We’ve had lawyers working over the weekend in collaboration with the governor’s office and others. We’re in communication with the Oregon AG’s office,” he said.
On Sunday, federal agents were spotted in downtown Chicago on Sunday. Some were masked, carrying long guns, and walking in packs amongst shoppers and tourists.
“On a beautiful weekend, when families were out enjoying their day in Chicago, armed border patrol agents were downtown, marching up and down Michigan Avenue, harassing and intimidating residents and tourists,” Pritzker said. “Meanwhile, ICE’s chief offender, Gregory Bovino, has been leading the disruption and causing mayhem while he gleefully poses for photo ops and TikTok videos.”
The governor also cited a WBEZ Public Radio report that Bovino, the chief U.S. Border Patrol agent, claimed in an interview that federal agents were arresting people downtown based on “how they look.”
“They’re not targeting violent criminals or gang members, they’re arresting tamale vendors and deliverymen, and shaking down families. Donald Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem and [border czar] Tom Homan said they were targeting the worst of the worst criminals. They lied, and they continue to lie,” Pritzker said. “Sixty percent of the individuals that ICE has taken in Illinois this year have no criminal convictions of any kind. ICE is running around the Loop harassing people for not being white. Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States. Now ICE is making it commonplace.”
Video sent to the CBS News Chicago newsroom by a viewer showed what appeared to be federal agents detaining a mother and her children in front of dozens of people during the downtown deployment Sunday. CBS News Chicago is told it happened just before 1 p.m. Sunday on Michigan Avenue.
Mayor Brandon Johnson called the feds’ show of force in downtown Chicago on Sunday an “absolute disgrace.”
“They targeted street vendors and construction workers just trying to make an honest living. They made a little girl act as a translator as they took her family into custody. These are heartbreaking scenes that have nothing to do with making our city safer,” he said.
Pritzker’s announcement about a possible Trump administration troop deployment in Illinois comes after intense confrontations continued this past weekend between federal agents and protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview.
Amid protests outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview this weekend, agents were seen pinning down some protesters, deploying tear gas and pepper bullets, and detaining multiple people.
“In Broadview, people non-violently holding signs and chanting against brutality, expressing their First Amendment rights, have been regularly attacked with chemical agents like tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and flashbangs. Agents reportedly unholstered their guns and pointed them at protesters,” Pritzker said. “Without provocation and acting like jackbooted thugs, ICE has attacked and detained members of the press, including an independent journalist. A CBS Chicago correspondent had chemical munitions fired at her car, where there were no protesters in sight. And we have received many reports of U.S. citizens being detained for simply stepping onto the public street.”
A federal agent fired a pepper ball at CBS News Chicago reporter Asal Rezaei outside the Broadview facility Sunday morning. Rezaei said there was no active protest or protesters at the facility at the time, and she was alone with no one around her when the pepper ball hit her vehicle.
In a report filed with Broadview police, Rezaei said she was driving her truck with her driver’s side window down, while approaching the 25th Avenue entrance to see if any activity was taking place, before leaving the area.
That’s when she said a masked ICE agent, who saw her window down, shot a pepper ball about 50 feet from the inside of the fence, hitting her truck’s driver’s side panel, causing the chemical agents to engulf the inside of her truck.
“I was sitting right there with my window opened,” Rezaei said. “A lot of it went inside my car and on my face. I immediately felt it burning. I started throwing up.”
The Broadview Police Department said it has launched a criminal investigation, and said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expected to cooperate.
CBS News Chicago reporter Darius Johnson said he has also been overcome by chemical agents while covering protests at the Broadview facility, more than a week ago.
Johnson and his photographer were overcome by tear gas once agents threw it. Johnson does not believe he and his crew were directly targeted, but he said there was “no regard for the media.”
This past Friday during protests, Johnson said he witnessed that whenever protesters touched the fence outside the ICE processing facility, they were hit with pepper balls or rubber bullets.
Pritzker urged people to record video of encounters with ICE in order to help protect their rights, noting an ICE officer in New York has been relieved of his duties pending an investigation into video showing him pushing a woman to the ground outside an immigration court in New York City.
In a statement Friday, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called the conduct of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer “unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.”
The ICE officer who pushed the woman is now back on duty.
Todd Feurer is a web producer for CBS Chicago. He has previously written for WBBM Newsradio, WUIS-FM and the New City News Service.
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