Oct. 4 (UPI) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the Trump administration has threatened to bypass him and call up the state’s National Guard for a possible deployment in Chicago.
Pritzker declined President Donald Trump’s request for him to call up 300 Illinois National Guard troops and on Saturday said he received an ultimatum to do so.
“This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said, Politico reported. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
He said Illinois does not need military troops deployed anywhere in the state.
“I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people,” Pritzker said.
The Trump administration recently sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to Chicago to detain and deport people who are allegedly in the United States illegally.
The ICE raids in and near Chicago have drawn protesters who at times engaged in what some have called rioting.
A federal judge in July dismissed a case challenging Chicago’s sanctuary city laws and filed by the Justice Department.
ICE continues to enforce federal immigration law in the Windy City and elsewhere in Illinois, though.
An overnight raid on a Chicago apartment building early Saturday morning resulted in 37 arrests, CNN reported. DHS targeted the South Shore apartment building because many alleged Tren de Aragua members were staying there, DHS officials said.
Trump recently declared the Venezuelan gang of being a terrorist organization.
Many people who have been arrested are from Venezuela. The Trump administration recently revoked their temporary protected status, which now makes them subject to deportation.
Others arrested have been from Colombia, Mexico and Nigeria, according to the Department of Homeland Services.
The overnight raid is part of Operation Midway Blitz, which has resulted in the arrests of more than 800 “illegal aliens,” according to the DHS.
