Demonstrators protest along Kedzie Avenue as federal agents investigate a shooting on October 4 in Chicago's Brighton Park neighbourhood. Photo / Joshua Lott, The Washington Post
United States President Donald Trump today called for the jailing of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governort JB Pritzker, both Democrats, accusing them of “failing to protect” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who have been sent to the city.
His comments mark another escalation - at least in rhetoric - against Democratic leaders in Illinois who have been pushing back against his immigration crackdown there.
There is no evidence that either Johnson or Pritzker has done anything to warrant jail time, and the White House did not specify which laws the President believes they have broken.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
Trump has often called for the jailing of his political adversaries in social media posts.
But in recent months, he has repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to pursue prosecutions in several cases - including of former FBI director James Comey, who pleaded not guilty today to charges he lied to Congress.
Both Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, and Johnson responded to Trump defiantly.
“I will not back down,” Pritzker wrote on X.
“Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
Johnson, in a social media post, said Trump was seeking to have him “unjustly arrested”, adding: “I’m not going anywhere”.
The Justice Department declined to comment on Trump’s post. The White House declined to provide more information about Trump’s call for Johnson and Pritzker to be jailed, instead providing a statement criticising them over their records on crime.
The Trump Administration has spent recent weeks sending a surge of ICE agents into Chicago, the country’s third-most-populous city, to make hundreds of arrests for alleged immigration offences.
Trump on Sunday separately authorised the activation of 300 National Guard troops in Chicago over the objections of Pritzker.
Pritzker and Johnson filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop Trump from sending an additional 400 National Guard troops from Texas to Chicago, a highly unusual deployment of one state’s Guard into another against the host state’s wishes.
Texas troops were arriving in Elwood, Illinois, about 80km from Chicago.
Tensions between angry Chicago residents and ICE agents spiked in recent days when agents shot a woman in the Brighton Park neighbourhood.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security described the shooting as “defensive” and said the woman drove herself to a hospital and was later taken into custody by the FBI.
Violent crime rates in Chicago have dropped by 40% in the past decade - falling from about 904 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2015 to about 540 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2024, according to a Washington Post analysis of FBI data.
According to Chicago Police Department data, shooting incidents are down 35% so far this year compared with the same period last year.
Democratic leaders in Illinois have argued that the ICE crackdown in Chicago is more about generating media attention and creating fear than making the city safer.
“They fail to focus on violent criminals and instead create panic in our communities,” Pritzker said in a statement at the weekend.
“Illinois is not a photo opportunity or warzone, it’s a sovereign state where our people deserve rights, respect, and answers.”
Photographs yesterday showed Texas National Guard troops at the Army Reserve centre in Elwood, carrying rifles and riot shields. Pritzker called it an “invasion”.
The lawsuit by Johnson and Pritzker argues that deployment of any state’s National Guard to perform federal law enforcement functions in Illinois is unconstitutional.
On Tuesday, US District Judge April Perry set the case’s next hearing for tomorrow. She suggested the federal Government “might strongly consider” pausing the deployment of troops until after that hearing but did not order it to do so.
Republicans have largely supported Trump’s National Guard deployments and his confrontations with Democratic leaders who have resisted troops.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), however, declined to say today if he agreed with Trump that Johnson and Pritzker should be put behind bars.
“I’m not the attorney-general. I’m the speaker of the House, and I’m trying to manage the chaos here,” Johnson said, speaking at a news conference on the eighth day of a federal government shutdown. “I’m not following the day-to-day on that.”
While Trump does not always follow through on his threats against political opponents, his Administration has taken action against some of his adversaries.
His administration, for example, has opened mortgage-fraud investigations into New York Attorney-General Letitia James (D), whose office secured a US$500 million civil fraud judgment against Trump and his businesses last year, and Senator Adam Schiff (D-California), a leader of Trump’s first impeachment in the House in 2019.
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