CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois authorities filed a lawsuit Monday to prevent President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops to Chicago, escalating tensions between Democratic states and the Republican administration amid an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in the nation’s third-largest city.
The legal challenge came hours after a judge blocked the Guard’s deployment in Portland, Oregon.
The legal action in Chicago heightened the situation following a violent weekend, where a woman was reportedly shot by a federal agent after Border Patrol vehicles were surrounded and hit by other vehicles. Chicago’s police superintendent dismissed any notions that the city’s officers were aligned with the federal government in such volatile incidents.
The Trump administration has described the cities involved as chaotic and unruly within the context of its intensified efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration. Officials from Illinois and Oregon argue that military intervention is unnecessary, suggesting that federal presence only exacerbates tensions.
The lawsuit claims that “President Trump’s well-documented ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois constitutes an unlawful and perilous advance.” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced that a court hearing was set for Thursday.
“Donald Trump is misusing our service personnel as mere political symbols and tools in his unlawful attempt to militarize the cities of our nation,” said Pritzker, a Democrat.
Governor: Federal wave is an ‘invasion’
Pritzker said some 300 of the state’s guard troops were to be federalized and deployed to Chicago, along with 400 others from Texas.
Pritzker labeled the potential military deployment as “Trump’s invasion,” urging Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott to obstruct it. In response, Abbott defended the operation, asserting the need for heightened enforcement to safeguard federal employees stationed in the city as part of the president’s stepped-up immigration strategy.
Abbott posted a picture on the social platform X on Monday night of Texas National Guard members boarding a plane, but didn’t specify where they were going.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed in a weekend statement that Trump authorized using Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
The sight of armed Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous landmarks amplified concerns from Chicagoans already uneasy after an immigration crackdown that began last month. Agents have targeted immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday that he signed an executive order barring federal immigration agents and others from using city-owned property, such as parking lots, garages and vacant lots, as staging areas for enforcement operations.
Mayor limits protest hours at ICE site
Protesters have frequently rallied near an immigration facility outside the city, and federal officials reported the arrests of 13 protesters Friday near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Broadview. Mayor Katrina Thompson, citing safety and other factors, said she was limiting protests to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The ACLU of Illinois on Monday sued Trump, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Border Patrol and national and local leaders at several agencies, accusing them of unleashing a campaign of violence and intimidation against peaceful protesters and journalists during weeks of demonstrations outside that facility. The lawsuit alleges that federal agents used “indiscriminate” and “violent force,” including tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper balls and flash grenades, interfering with First Amendment rights.
DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the lawsuit that “the First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting.”
Elsewhere, DHS acknowledged that agents shot a woman Saturday on Chicago’s southwest side. The department said it happened after Border Patrol agents patrolling the area were “rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.”
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said it’s reasonable for agents to use force if they believe they’re being ambushed. He noted officers were redeployed from other parts of the city to assist the agents and that 27 were affected by tear gas.
“We cannot become a society where we just decide to take everything in our own hands and start to commit crimes against law enforcement,” Snelling said.
He said it’s difficult to “toe the line” between not helping federal immigration agents and maintaining public safety.
Portland says no crime crisis there
In Portland, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut on Sunday granted a temporary restraining order sought by Oregon and California barring the deployment of Guard troops to Oregon from any state and the District of Columbia.
Immergut, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, seemed incredulous that the president moved to send National Guard troops to Oregon from neighboring California and then from Texas on Sunday, just hours after she had ruled against it the first time.
“Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she said. “Why is this appropriate?”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt criticized the decision and said the president was using his authority as commander in chief.
Portland’s ICE facility has been the site of nightly protests for months, peaking in June when Portland police declared a riot, with smaller clashes occurring since then.
In recent weeks, the nightly protests typically drew a couple dozen people — until Trump ordered the National Guard. Over the weekend, larger crowds gathered outside the facility and federal agents fired tear gas. Portland police made multiple arrests.
Since June, federal agents have charged 30 people with federal crimes related to the protests at the ICE building, including assaulting federal officers, failure to comply and depredation of government property, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon said Monday.
Most violent crime around the U.S. has declined in recent years, including in Portland, where homicides from January through June decreased by 51% to 17 this year compared to the same period in 2024, data shows.
Since starting his second term, Trump has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A federal judge in September said the administration “willfully” broke federal law by deploying guard troops to Los Angeles over protests about immigration raids.
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Associated Press reporters Sophia Tareen in Chicago, Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.
