Illinois and Chicago Sue Trump Administration Over National Guard Deployment

The state of Illinois and the city of Chicago have sued the administration of US President Donald Trump after the decision to deploy National Guard troops to control protests. The lawsuit alleges that this is illegal, politically motivated, and repeats a similar challenge to the deployment of the Guard in Portland. This is reported by UNN with reference to CNN.

Details

As the publication writes, "the state of Illinois and Chicago on Monday sued the Trump administration over its decision to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago."

The lawsuit was filed amid protests against the federal government's immigration control actions. It came just hours after a federal judge blocked a similar National Guard deployment in Portland, Oregon.

The defendants' deployment of federal troops to Illinois is clearly illegal. The plaintiffs ask this court to stop the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the United States National Guard, including the Illinois and Texas National Guard.

The lawsuit was filed two days after the White House announced Trump's decision to send 300 Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago to "protect federal officers and facilities." The American president has previously used this strategy during protests against immigration and customs policies in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker condemned the decision to deploy troops and stated that he refused to activate the National Guard after the Trump administration's request. When it became known that 400 Texas National Guard troops were also planned to be sent to Illinois and Oregon, Pritzker called it an "invasion."

The lawsuit asks the court to prohibit the federalization and deployment of any National Guard troops in Illinois and to declare such actions illegal in a broader sense. Among the defendants are Trump, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. A White House spokeswoman said the president "will not ignore lawlessness in American cities."

Amid ongoing violent unrest and lawlessness that local leaders, such as Pritzker, have refused to quell, President Trump has exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officials and assets.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, alleged that the troop deployment was "politically motivated" and claimed that Trump has a long history of "threatening and disparaging" comments about Chicago and the state of Illinois, at least since 2013.

The document notes that Illinois and Chicago are already seeing a sharp increase in the number of federal agents, some of whom have responded to protests near an ICE facility in Broadview. The plaintiffs believe that these protests are not sufficient grounds for deploying the National Guard, and that the actions of the federal authorities provoke new protests and threaten public safety.

The complaint emphasizes that there are no legal or factual grounds for the federalization of the National Guard. It repeats a similar challenge to the deployment of the Guard in Portland, Oregon, where a federal judge temporarily blocked the deployment of troops, finding that the president exceeded constitutional powers because the protests did not pose a "danger of insurrection."

Recall

Earlier, UNN wrote that the Trump administration sent 200 National Guard troops to Portland, despite attempts by Oregon authorities to block the decision through court. Local officials warn that the president's actions could escalate the situation and cause new protests.