The Trump administration is making preparations to possibly send the National Guard and federal immigration agents to Chicago as local officials brace for what they call an unwanted and unneeded influx of federal troops.
With reports claiming a federal operation could be launched as soon as next week, officials have asked a military base outside of Chicago to support operations aimed at undocumented immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security asked Naval Station Great Lakes for “limited support in the form of facilities, infrastructure, and other logistical needs,” Matt Mogle, spokesperson for the base 35 miles north of Chicago, said Wednesday.
The action comes a couple of weeks after Trump sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to target crime, immigration and homelessness, and two months after he sent troops into the streets of Los Angeles when protests erupted against mass deportation.
Although details of the administration’s plans are sketchy, city leaders said Thursday that they are preparing for multiple possible scenarios, from troops assisting in immigration arrests to patrolling in the streets.
Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling said the city would dust off its plan to secure the Democratic National Convention last summer, which went off without major disruptions.
He said the White House has so far failed to communicate what it plans to do or when.
“Communication between CPD and the National Guard would be most helpful because that’s where we could find balance,” Snelling said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a strident Democratic critic of Trump, has slammed to possible deployment as illegal and a politically charged publicity stunt.
He and Mayor Brandon Johnson say crime is down in Chicago, mirroring a trend in most of the nation’s big cities.
“What he’s trying to do is try to inflame something that will cause a problem that he can then point at,” said Pritzker, a two-term governor and 2028 White House hopeful.
The initial phase of a federal operation in Chicago, the nation’s third most-populous city behind New York and L.A., will focus on immigration enforcement, not a more general crackdown on crime.
Preparations including sending armored vehicles to the city in the coming days and surging federal agents into the city by Friday, Sept. 5, which is the tentative kickoff date, CNN reported.
White House border czar Tom Homan Thursday declined to say how many troops and agents will be sent to Chicago but vowed “it will be a large contingent.”
