Judge Blocks National Guard Deployment to Chicago

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump’s federalization and deployment of hundreds of National Guard members throughout Illinois.

U.S. District Judge April Perry, an appointee of former President Biden, partially granted state and city officials’ request for a temporary restraining order barring Trump from taking over National Guard troops and sending them across Illinois, after some troops were already sent to patrol the Chicago area. She did not explain which positions she rejected but said she would explain her reasoning on Friday.

Illinois and Chicago officials sued Monday over what Gov. JB Pritzker (D) has called an “unconstitutional invasion of Illinois by the federal government.”

“Donald Trump is not a king — and his administration is not above the law,” he said in a statement on the social platform X after Perry’s Thursday ruling from the bench. “Today, the court confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the National Guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago.”

The temporary restraining order is set to expire on Oct. 23. Perry rejected the Trump administration’s request to temporarily pause it so they can appeal and set a hearing for Oct. 22 on whether to extend the order another two weeks.

About 300 federalized Illinois National Guard members were deployed to the Chicago area on Wednesday evening, alongside some 200 troops from Texas, according to the military unit commanding them. They’ve been activated for 60 days.

“These soldiers are employed to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property,” U.S. Northern Command said in a statement late Wednesday.

Local leaders have strongly opposed President Trump’s use of the guard, suggesting in their lawsuit that the deployment efforts reflect an unlawful attempt to infringe on the state’s sovereignty.

They argued in their motion to block the National Guard’s federalization and deployment of the troops that Trump is using “small-scale” protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in a nearby suburb as a pretext to send in the troops.

Trump’s years-long fixation on Chicago is proof, the officials said.

“The inevitability of this action — forecasted in countless posts and public statements — is confirmation of its illegality,” lawyers for Illinois and Chicago wrote.

Trump last week called Chicago a “big city with an incompetent governor” and has previously criticized the city as the “worst and most dangerous” in the world.

The officials date Trump’s “animus” toward Illinois and Chicago back to the day before he was first elected president, on Nov. 7, 2016, when he posted on social media about the city: “The crime is unbelievable. You can’t walk to the store and get a loaf of bread. Often, you get shot.”

The Justice Department contends that the risks posed to federal immigration enforcement officers have necessitated additional protective measures, writing in their opposition to the officials’ motion that detractors of Trump and Congress’s policy on immigration have resorted to “vicious tactics to thwart and intimidate” them in recent months.

The first move toward deployment came on Sept. 26, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested assistance protecting ICE facilities in the state.

The agency claimed it was subject to a “coordinated assault by violent groups” that are “actively aligned with designated domestic terror organizations,” according to the lawsuit.

Illinois and Chicago officials rejected that description as “purported but fictional.”

“Ultimately, under our constitutional scheme, it is the President’s prerogative to determine where federalized Guardsmen are assigned, and an injunction interfering with military assignment decisions would contravene separation-of-powers principles,” the Justice Department argued.

An ICE facility in Broadview, Ill., a western suburb of Chicago, has become the focus of protests in the area. Rubber bullets, pepper balls and tear gas have been fired at demonstrators, while employees of the facility have sought escorts into the building and had their tires slashed, according to court papers.

Perry’s order temporarily blocks two memorandums by Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding the National Guard: his Oct. 4 authorization of the Illinois troops’ federalization, and an undated call-up of 400 Texas troops to be sent to Chicago; Portland, Ore.; and other locations “where needed.”

The ruling comes as Trump’s rhetorical battle with local leaders is escalating.

On Wednesday, he called for the jailing of Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D). Pritzker responded in a media interview to “come and get” him.

“If you come for my people, you come through me,” the Illinois governor said.

A federal appeals court on Thursday also heard oral arguments over Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Oregon. A three-judge panel Wednesday lifted a lower court’s order blocking the president from calling Oregon National Guard members into federal service, but he still may not deploy troops anywhere in the state, for now.