Ex-President Donald J. Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "The Illinois governor as well!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic faction.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of National Guard troops in the Windy City area under orders from the current government, notwithstanding strong objections from Illinois authorities including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, stating: "I will not back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from the Lone Star State had reached the Elwood army reserve center, an army base approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration advances with its aggressive crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, including murders.
On Wednesday, two hundred Texas National Guard members were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred state military personnel readying for deployment, according to sources. Officials indicated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would protect federal immigration agents and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were spotted at the military facility in Elwood. Vehicles labeled "Disaster Relief" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were arranged in lines. Additional fencing was placed around the perimeter.
Aviation authorities ordered no-fly zones over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
The administration has escalated immigration enforcement in Chicago in recent weeks, sparking demonstrations, particularly near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action targeting the administration, attempting to halt the military dispatch, asking a court to stop what they describe as "Trump's long-declared 'Battle'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "illegal and risky".
A court hearing on their lawsuit is set for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also signed an executive order on that day banning federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for enforcement actions.
The governor has accused Trump of using troops as "political props" and "pawns".
At a news conference on Tuesday, he said that Trump is trying to "justify and make acceptable the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military's role in civilian law enforcement. However, Trump has stated he would be willing to activate the emergency powers, which allows a president to send active duty military in regions that are failing to put down an uprising or are resisting federal law.
Since starting his second term, the president has dispatched or mentioned sending troops to over ten urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, arguing that the military presence is necessary to fight violence and protect ICE officers.
Statistics shows that most violent crime across the US has declined in recent years. In Chicago, for example, murders were reduced 31% to 278 through late summer, according to law enforcement reports.
New survey data released on Wednesday found that the majority of US citizens oppose the sending of military forces without an external threat.
