The state of Illinois and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Oct. 6 in a bid to stop the federal government from deploying National Guard troops to Chicago.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit states.
“To guard against this, foundational principles of American law limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs. Those bedrock principles are in peril.”
Pritzker described the deployment as “Trump’s Invasion.”
“There is no reason a president should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation,” the governor said.
On Oct. 5, Hegseth called up 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployment to Chicago, according to the lawsuit.
The court should block these military deployments “immediately and permanently,” the complaint reads. It alleges that the president is using the military as part of an effort to “punish his political enemies.”
The deployments are part of a plan announced by Trump at the Pentagon on Sept. 30. The president said military personnel must prioritize “defending the homeland” against an “invasion from within” in U.S. cities, including Chicago.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson previously told The Epoch Times that the president authorized the deployment to Chicago to safeguard federal assets from “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness.”
Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said on Oct. 4 that law enforcement officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars during a patrol in Broadview, a village several miles from Chicago, after which an agent fired “defensive shots” at an armed driver.
McLaughlin also said the Chicago Police Department declined to assist federal agents in securing the area, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to deploy “special operations to control the scene” as a crowd gathered.
The same day the complaint was filed, the case was assigned to Judge April Perry of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Perry ordered that the parties participate in a status hearing on the case at 2 p.m. local time on Oct. 6.
Responding to a lawsuit filed by Oregon and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Judge Karin J. Immergut of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued a temporary restraining order directing the Trump administration to not deploy federalized National Guard troops to Oregon. The order expires on Oct. 19.
At a news conference with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Bonamici said Trump’s plan to take over National Guard troops was a “gross abuse of power” and that “no military is welcome or needed [in Oregon],” according to the Justice Department.
