The mayor of Chicago has signed an executive order seeking to protect residents against a possible decision by United States President Donald Trump’s administration to deploy federal troops to the city.
Mayor Brandon Johnson announced on Saturday that he was signing the so-called Protecting Chicago Initiative amid what he said were “credible reports” that Chicago could see militarised activity by the federal government within days.
“It is unclear at this time what that will look like exactly,” the mayor said at a news conference. “We may see militarised immigration enforcement. We may also see National Guard troops. We may even see active duty military and armed vehicles in our streets.”
Among other things, the order directs Chicago law enforcement officers not to collaborate with US military personnel on patrols or during immigration enforcement activities, Johnson told reporters.
He described the move as “the most sweeping campaign of any city in the country to protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration”.
Johnson’s announcement comes after Trump earlier this month said that he was considering whether to expand his National Guard troop deployment from Washington, DC, to other major cities across the country.
Trump called up the National Guard in what he said was a push to address crime in the US capital. The Republican leader has since credited the deployment with cutting down rates of violence in the city.
But data from the Metropolitan Police Department showed violent crime in Washington, DC, was already at a 30-year low, and critics warned that the crackdown could end up being a test run for the broader militarisation of US cities.
Earlier this week, the top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, said in an interview with CNN that Trump had “no authority” to send federal troops to Chicago. The US Constitution gives the power of policing to the states.
JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, where Chicago is located, also rejected the idea.
“Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicize Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he is causing working families,” Pritzker said in a statement.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, CNN reported on Friday that the Trump administration has been preparing to carry out a “major immigration enforcement operation” in Chicago as early as next week.
According to CNN, White House officials said those plans are separate from Trump’s idea of sending National Guard troops to Chicago for a broader crackdown on crime.
The president, who took office in January for a second term, has pursued a hardline, anti-immigration agenda and pledged to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in US history.
The administration has justified its push by saying it is deporting “criminals” who are in the US illegally. It has reached deals with third countries to take in deported asylum seekers and migrants.
But US media reports over the past months have shown that many people have been swept up in the immigration raids, including some American citizens and permanent residents with no criminal records.
In June, Trump sent 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles after an intensified wave of arrests by US immigration authorities prompted massive protests and confrontations between demonstrators and police.
On Saturday, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson slammed the Chicago mayor’s executive order, saying in a statement shared by US media outlets that “cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue”.
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” Jackson said.
During his news conference, Johnson, the mayor, said it remained unclear whether Trump would go ahead with his plans in the city.
“He could change his mind, he could reverse course – in fact, I encourage him to do that,” Johnson said, stressing that Chicago does not want its residents rounded up off the streets.
“We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the backs of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents,” he added.
