Trump Authorizes Sending National Guard to Illinois
CHICAGO—President Trump pressed ahead Saturday with plans to mobilize federal troops in cities led by Democrats, this time in Illinois, even as a federal judge in Oregon issued a sharply worded order blocking the administration from sending National Guard members to Portland.
Trump plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard over the objection of Gov. JB Pritzker, the latest development in a long-simmering confrontation between the White House and Democratic governors over crime and immigration policy.
“Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President Trump has authorized 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said Saturday evening.
The Illinois governor said earlier Saturday the Trump administration demanded that he call in the Illinois National Guard, or the Defense Department would federalize 300 members. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker said.
Trump has increasingly used the military on U.S. soil either to participate in what he has called a crime crackdown—or protect immigration buildings and agents from Americans who protest against his policies. Pritzker and Chicago officials have repeatedly touted violent-crime reduction in recent years.
In Portland, Ore., U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued an emergency order Saturday finding that Trump overstepped his authority in seeking to take command of National Guard units and use them against what the president has characterized as lawlessness in that state’s largest city. Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and other state officials filed suit to stop the administration’s action, arguing that none of the conditions Congress set allowing the president to federalize state Guard units were present.
The Trump administration on Sept. 27 ordered the federalization of 200 Oregon National Guardsmen to back up immigration-enforcement efforts in Portland.
Immergut, a 2019 Trump nominee, found that contrary to the president’s assertions, there was no danger of rebellion against federal authority in Portland and that the city police were able to address the minor incidents accompanying several protests against immigration-enforcement sweeps.
The judge said allowing the president to take command of state Guard personnel would violate Oregon’s 10th Amendment powers and upset the balance of authority between the federal government and the states.
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote. Accepting Trump’s arguments would “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.” Immergut set a hearing later this month to weigh whether to extend her temporary restraining order beyond its initial two weeks.
In Illinois, meanwhile, Pritzker said a mobilization would only result in chaos.
“They will pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance—not a serious effort to protect public safety,” he said in a statement. “For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.”
The weekend confrontation between Trump and Pritzker is the latest battle between the Republican president and a Democratic governor who is a possible 2028 presidential candidate. The tension had been rising after a week of federal immigration actions and clashes with civilians around Chicago.
Federal agents made high-profile arrests in tourist areas, conducted a nighttime raid on a South Side apartment building and skirmished with protesters outside a suburban migrant processing facility.
On Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said vehicles carrying federal agents doing a routine patrol in Chicago were rammed and trapped by about 10 vehicles.
Agents fired on a woman in one of those vehicles who was carrying a semiautomatic weapon, said Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman. The woman took herself to a hospital, and no federal officers were seriously injured, McLaughlin said.
An activist group said that the federal agents had crashed into the vehicle, resulting in a multicar accident. They said the agents fired five shots at the vehicle.
In Broadview, Ill., a western suburb of Chicago, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility has become an epicenter of protest against the White House immigration policy. In recent days, members of nearby police departments have been called in to assist with crowd control.
“State, county, and local law enforcement have been working together and coordinating to ensure public safety around the Broadview ICE facility, and to protect people’s ability to peacefully exercise their constitutional rights,” Pritzker said.
Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com, Joe Barrett at Joseph.Barrett@wsj.com and Jess Bravin at Jess.Bravin@wsj.com
