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state of Illinois urged a judge to order Thursday National Guard stand down in chicago area, calling the deployment a constitutional crisis and suggesting that the Trump administration paid no attention to the pending legal challenge when it sent troops into an immigration enforcement building overnight.
“The government moved forward anyway,” said lawyer Christopher Wells. “Now, the troops are here.”
Wells’ pleas triggered an extraordinary trial in federal court in Chicago. President says cities and states are run by Democratic elected leaders donald trump Has overstepped his authority and ignored their pleas to keep the guards off the streets.
The heavy public attendance at the downtown courthouse led officials to open an overflow room with a video feed of the hearing.
Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton said the Chicago area was filled with “tragic lawlessness.” He mentioned an incident last weekend in which a Border Patrol vehicle was stopped and a woman was shot by an agent who responded.
“Chicago is seeing a new form of hostility from rioters targeting federal law enforcement,” Hamilton said. “They’re not protesters. It’s just that there is a threat of rebellion, which there is.”
Guard members from Texas and Illinois arrived this week at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago. All 500 are under the US Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days.
Some Guard soldiers are seen behind portable fencing at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Broadview, outside Chicago. It has been the site of occasional clashes between protesters and federal agents, but the scene was peaceful, with only a few people present.
Broadview said in a statement that police observed on Wednesday night that the soldiers were sleeping undisturbed in the van.
“We hope they will show the same courtesy in the coming days to Broadview residents who deserve a good night’s sleep,” the village said.
Chicago and Illinois filed suit on Monday to stop the deployment, calling it unnecessary and illegal. Trump has portrayed Chicago as a lawless “hell” of crime, although statistics show a recent significant decline in crime.
In a petition filed with the court, the city and state say the protests at the ICE building in Broadview “have never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement.”
“The President is using the Broadview protests as an excuse,” he wrote. “The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the president’s administration to target areas the president dislikes.”
The Republican president said Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker should be sent to jail for failing to protect federal agents during an immigration enforcement crackdown.
Also Thursday, a federal appeals court was scheduled to hear arguments over whether Trump had the authority to take control of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. The President planned to deploy them portlandWhere small protests have taken place, mostly nightly, outside the ICE building. Like Illinois, state and city leaders insist there is neither a need nor a need for troops there.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut on Sunday granted a temporary restraining order to block the deployment of Guard troops in Portland. Trump mobilized California troops to Portland just hours after a judge blocked him from using the Oregon Guard for the first time.
Two dozen other states with Democratic attorneys general or governors signed on to an appeals court filing in support of the legal challenge by California and Oregon.
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the President to send active duty troops to states that are unable to rebel or are disobeying federal law.
Trump had previously sent troops to Los Angeles and Washington. In Memphis, Tennessee, Mayor Paul Young said Guard members would begin patrolling Friday. Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee supports the use of the Guard.
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Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle, Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.