Chicago Mayor Blocks Trump's Troop Deployment

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed an executive order authorizing “immediate, drastic action” to respond to what he said could be a looming military deployment by the Trump administration to the city.

“I am signing an executive order that directs all of our City’s departments to protect Chicagoans and not collaborate with federal overreach,” Johnson said in an Aug. 30 post on X.

At an Aug. 30 press conference, Johnson added that his order “affirms” that Chicago police will not “collaborate with military personnel or civil immigration enforcement.”

The mayor’s order bars city police from assisting federal agents in immigration or joint patrols, calls on federal officers to identify themselves and wear body cameras, and directs city departments to explore legal and legislative steps to resist federal actions. It also urges President Donald Trump to “stand down” from deploying troops.

“We will not have our police officers, who are working hard every single day to drive down crime, deputized to do traffic stops and check stops for the president,” he said, adding that, “we do not want to see tanks on our streets.”

The move comes after Trump said Chicago would likely be the next major city to face a federal crime crackdown.

Trump, who has already deployed troops to Washington, has cited a federal statute allowing such actions and said the National Guard could “solve Chicago within one week.”

“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office, referring to his efforts in Washington to crack down on crime. “Chicago’s a mess. We’ll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”

The president added, however, that he would not move forward without a request from Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has rejected the idea.

“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker told reporters at a press conference in Chicago.

“This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try to intimidate his political rivals.”

Trump officials have also signaled stepped-up immigration enforcement in the city.

Border czar Tom Homan told NewsNation on Aug. 28 that “a large contingent” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers would be sent to Chicago. He did not say how many.

Likewise, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem told the same outlet a day earlier that an elite specialized tactical unit within ICE would be deployed to Chicago “soon.”

In 2024, Chicago was the nation’s murder capital, with 573 homicides, according to data compiled by Wirepoints, an independent Illinois research organization.

Other Democratic lawmakers have expressed opposition to National Guard deployments in Chicago and other cities.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) rejected Trump’s suggestion that he could deploy National Guard troops to Chicago or Baltimore, calling it an effort to “manufacture a crisis” as reported crime has fallen in both cities.

“There’s no basis, no authority for Donald Trump to potentially try to drop federal troops into the city of Chicago,” Jeffries told CNN’s State of the Union on Aug. 24.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Aug. 27 that crime has decreased since Trump deployed National Guard troops to the city and took federal control of the local police department almost three weeks ago.

Bowser told reporters during an update on the enforcement surge that in just 20 days, the number of carjackings had fallen by 87 percent from the same period last year.

“We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer, ” Bowser said. “So this surge has been important to us for that reason.”