Illinois State Police stand guard while monitoring protesters gathering near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Illinois. Photo / Octavio Jones, AFP
Illinois State Police stand guard while monitoring protesters gathering near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Illinois. Photo / Octavio Jones, AFP
In the US, the Trump administration has branded Chicago a “war zone” as a justification for deploying soldiers against the will of local Democrat officials, while a judge blocked the White House from sending troops to another Democrat-run city.
An escalating political crisis across the country pits President Donald Trump’santi-crime and migration crackdown against opposition Democrats who accuse him of an authoritarian power grab.
In the newest flashpoint, Trump has authorised deployment of 300 National Guard soldiers to Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, despite the opposition of elected leaders including the mayor and state Governor JB Pritzker.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the move, claiming on Fox News that Chicago is “a war zone”.
But Pritzker, speaking on CNN, accused Republicans of aiming to sow “mayhem on the ground. They want to create the war zone, so that they can send in even more troops.
He has claimed: “Portland is burning to the ground. It’s insurrectionists all over the place.”
Key ally Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, echoed the President’s rhetoric, telling NBC that National Guard troops deployed in the US capital Washington had responded to a “literal war zone”.
The deployment of ICE in US cities has prompted protests. Photo / Octavio Jones, AFP
No to ‘martial law’
But Trump’s campaign to use the military on home soil hit a roadblock in Portland, Oregon, when a court ruled the deployment was unlawful.
Trump has repeatedly called Portland “war-ravaged” but US District Judge Karin Immergut issued a temporary block, saying “the president’s determination was simply untethered to the facts”.
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote in her ruling.
Although Portland has seen scattered attacks on federal officers and property, the Trump administration failed to demonstrate “that those episodes of violence were part of an organised attempt to overthrow the government as a whole” – thereby justifying military force, she said.
One of Trump’s key advisers, Stephen Miller, called the judge’s order “legal insurrection”.
ICE officers have been deployed mostly in Democrat-run cities. Photo / Octavio Jones, AFP
Chicago shooting
Aside from the deployment of troops, the Trump crackdown is being spearheaded by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The department is being rapidly expanded both in personnel and duties.
ICE raids around the country – primarily in cities run by Democrats – have seen groups of masked, armed men in unmarked cars and armoured vehicles target residential neighbourhoods and businesses, sparking protests.
Days of tense scenes in Chicago turned violent at the weekend when a federal officer shot a motorist that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said had been armed and rammed one of their patrol vehicles.
DHS officials have said that ICE officers also shot and killed 38-year-old immigrant Silverio Villegas Gozalez during a traffic stop on September 12, accusing him of allegedly trying to flee the scene and dragging an ICE officer with the vehicle.
