CHICAGO — President Donald Trump is sending 300 National Guard troops to Chicago, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Saturday.
“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement Saturday. “In the coming hours, the Trump Administration intends to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard. 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 the protect public safety. For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.”
The deployment comes after weeks of back and forth between the Trump administration, state and local officials. Trump has threatened multiple times to send troops to Chicago, calling the city crime-ridden and local leaders incompetent, despite data showing crime decreasing across the city.
“I want to be clear: there is no need for military troops on the ground in the State of Illinois. 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 in a statement. “I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people.”
This is a developing story.
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