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President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has issued an ultimatum to Gov. JB Pritzker: \u201cCall up your troops, or we will,\u201d the governor said Saturday in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the coming hours, the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard,\u201d Pritzker said in the statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The request to the Illinois National Guard comes after Pritzker said earlier this week the Department of Homeland Security sought to deploy 100 military troops to Illinois \u201cfor the protection of ICE personnel and facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has threatened to send troops to Chicago for more than a month since launching an aggressive immigration enforcement operation, citing the city\u2019s crime rate \u2014 which has seen a decline in both violent crime and its murder rates. But DHS and Attorney General Pam Bondi have amplified their messaging that ICE agents are under attack.<\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, a woman was shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents on the city\u2019s South Side<\/u><\/a>, marking the second shooting of a civilian since the start of the administration\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n \u201cI have spent my career working to make communities safer and lead on public safety for our administration,\u201d Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a statement. \u201cNot a single violence-prevention expert I have worked with has ever said the answer is to flood our neighborhoods with federal troops. This move will only serve to spread fear, escalate conflict, and undermine the trust that keeps communities safe.\u201d<\/p>\n In the weeks since the Trump administration\u2019s increase in immigration enforcement, ICE agents have raided an apartment building in Chicago\u2019s South Shore<\/u><\/a> neighborhood, pulling men, women and children from their apartments and detaining them for hours overnight. At demonstrations outside of ICE\u2019s Broadview facility, protesters have been tear gassed and shot at with pepper pellets. Steve Held, a Chicago journalist, was arrested outside of the facility and detained for hours<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n Pritzker called the deployment of National Guard troops a \u201cmanufactured performance,\u201d not a serious effort to protect public safety.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Donald Trump, this has never been about safety,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cThis is about control.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House didn\u2019t immediately return a request seeking comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n