Former President Donald J. Trump on midweek demanded the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering Immigration agents!" Trump posted on social media early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker as well!"
Both officials identify as the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of National Guard personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding vehement protests from Illinois authorities such as Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have a Black man unjustly detained," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to back down. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation roughly 50 miles from the city, as the federal government advances with its hardline urban crime policy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has labeled Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though official statistics indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, including murders.
That day, 200 Texas National Guard troops were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred state military personnel readying for deployment, per sources. Officials reportedly stated the troops would avoid law enforcement duties but would secure federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers in combat attire with state guard insignia were observed at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were arranged in lines. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed no-fly zones over the military base for security reasons until 6 December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in Chicago in the past month, triggering demonstrations, especially near an immigration center in Broadview.
Earlier this week, state and city filed a lawsuit targeting the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, labeling it "unlawful and risky".
Legal proceedings on their case is set for Thursday.
Mayor Johnson also issued an directive on Monday prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
The governor has accused the president of using military forces as "political props" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "rationalize and normalize the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old federal law restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has stated he would be willing to activate the Insurrection Act, which allows a commander-in-chief to send regular army in regions that are failing to put down an uprising or are defying federal law.
After beginning his new administration, Trump has dispatched or discussed deploying military units to at least 10 cities, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, arguing that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Data indicates that most violent crime across the US has decreased in recent years. In the city, for example, murders were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, according to police data.
New survey data published on that day revealed that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
