CHICAGO (WGN) — Governor JB Pritzker is ready to challenge President Donald Trump’s order to mobilize 300 Illinois National Guard members for a broad immigration enforcement mission in Chicago.

“To be clear, deploying the National Guard or sending troops into American cities is illegal. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits such actions,” said Pritzker during his interview with WGN from his downtown office.

On Saturday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s effort to nationalize and send the Oregon National Guard to Portland. The ruling indicated that the president did not meet the legal requirements for such a deployment without the consent of the state governor. Notably, this judge was appointed by Trump himself.

 Pritzker says he expects a similar outcome.

“Even they recognize — the Trump appointed judges — that Donald Trump has gone way beyond the constitution, is violating law,” he said.

The Trump administration has already filed a notice of appeal in the Portland case. 

According to Pritzker, the Trump administration reached out to his staff and gave the chief executive an ultimatum.

Pritzker pointed out that his team was informed that if he refused to deploy the Illinois National Guard voluntarily for Chicago’s Operation Midway Blitz, the federal government would enforce Title 10, thus taking federal command of the Guard.

“It’s evident that there is a misunderstanding in how President Trump perceives the United States, believing he can militarize cities and assume control over them,” Pritzker remarked.

To manage crime or quell anti-ICE protests, Trump has sent federal forces to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago—all Democratic-led cities. Meanwhile, a federal task force has launched operations in Memphis with the backing of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican.

Speaking to U.S. military leaders in Virginia last Tuesday, Trump proposed using cities as training grounds for the military.

In Chicago, federal authorities say more than 1,000 people have been arrested in widespread raids by ICE and U.S. Border and Customs Patrol. Masked agents wearing tactical gear and carrying long guns are carrying out the mission which has sparked protests.

Last week’s nighttime military-style raid of a five-story apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood troubled Pritzker.

“Look, they’re not showing up with judicial warrants,” Pritzker said. “They’re using detainers, these are non-judicial warrants. They’re literally written by an ICE agent.”

In South Shore, agents kicked down doors, rounded up adults and children and detained people in zip-ties. Dozens were arrested.

“They’re going into buildings like the one on South Shore, in which they took 130 people out of the building, many of whom are U.S. citizens. They zip-tied children, some of them half naked, and put elderly people into U-Haul’s, U.S. citizens for hours while they removed the people they were targeting,” Pritzker said.

On Saturday in Brighton Park, federal law enforcement shot a woman accused of trying to box them in with a vehicle. ICE accuses some demonstrators of attacking their officers and impeding their work.

The governor urges protesters to remain peaceful.

“People who are going to show up and batter a police officer or any law enforcement, you deserve to be taken away, that’s not what your job is a protester,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker is defending the use of Illinois State Police in Broadview, where protests have repeatedly grown contentious.

“What we want is peace, and not just for the protesters, for the people who live in Broadview,” he said.

The so-called unified command force includes state troopers and law enforcement from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the Governor, the Broadview police force only has 31 total members, “They don’t have enough to manage something like this.” 

Last month, federal officers shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant. Authorities said it was self-defense, that Villegas-Gonzalez had dragged one of their officers with his car, but body camera reportedly showed the agent who opened fire called his injures ‘minor.’

“We’ve got to unravel the facts here because ICE just lies constantly over and over again,” Pritzker said.

In the lead up to the federal surge in Chicago, Trump and Pritzker, widely considered to be eyeing a future White House bid, have been engaged in a war of words.

Pritzker has criticized President Trump’s mental state, saying he’s suffering from dementia. The President has slammed Pritzker’s wealth, intelligence and weight.

“You know, it’s funny whenever the president talks about somebody critically, it’s often projection about what he himself is insecure about. So, think about each of the things that he’s said about me, they’re all true about him,” Pritzker said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in Illinois monitoring operations, blamed Pritzker after she was blocked from using a bathroom at public building. She also told Pritzker to “grow up,” and claimed that Chicago neighborhoods are being victimized by professional terrorists.

“She needs to get out,” the governor said. “She’s the one cosplaying as a social media influencer, who’s dragging with her cameras to catch her every move. She’s dressing up as a law enforcement officer and jumping in as if she’s trained to do any of this. She’s not.”

You can watch the full interview with Gov. JB Pritzker below: