Former President Donald J. Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for failing to secure Immigration agents!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor too!"
The two leaders identify as the Democratic faction.
Trump's statements coincide with the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from Illinois authorities such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This marks yet another attempt where Trump attempted to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward complete autocracy?"
As of midweek, National Guard units from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood training facility, an army base approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration pushes forward with its aggressive crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has labeled Chicago a "crime-ridden disaster zone", despite official statistics indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, such as murders.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred state military personnel readying for deployment, per reports. Officials indicated the soldiers would not perform law enforcement duties but would secure ICE officers and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard patches were spotted at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered portable toilets and essential items. Mobile units were set up in lines. Additional fencing was installed around the compound.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until 6 December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in Chicago in the past month, triggering demonstrations, especially near an immigration center in Broadview.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit targeting the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, calling it "illegal and risky".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also signed an directive on that day prohibiting federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as operation bases for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has accused the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, he said that Trump is trying to "justify and normalize the deployment of military personnel under his direct command."
The historic federal law restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a commander-in-chief to dispatch regular army in regions that are failing to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.
Since starting his second term, the president has dispatched or mentioned deploying military units to over ten urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and West Coast locations like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the armed forces is essential to combat crime and defend immigration agents.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in the past few years. In Chicago, for instance, homicides were down 31% to under three hundred through late summer, per law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on that day found that most Americans disapprove of the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
