{"id":197579,"date":"2025-09-03T19:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/197579\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T19:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:15:14","slug":"leak-confirms-chicago-military-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/197579\/","title":{"rendered":"Leak Confirms Chicago Military Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Chicagoans protesting ICE operations<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security has requested military assistance for upcoming ICE operations in Chicago, according to a \u201cFor Official Use Only\u201d memo that I\u2019ve obtained. A military advance team has already arrived.<\/p>\n

The document requests \u201cimmediate Department of Defense support\u201d for ICE\u2019s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) activities \u201cto address public safety and national security.\u201d It suggests that the support will be provided by active duty troops, making no mention of the Illinois National Guard.<\/p>\n

The request specifically seeks \u201csupport infrastructure,\u201d including highway access, fuel, and \u201cother logistical nodes\u2026\u201d with the military staging out of the Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago, some 30 miles from downtown.<\/p>\n

Dated August 27, the request is from Department of Homeland Security Executive Secretary Andrew Whitaker to Defense Department Executive Secretary Anthony Fuscellaro.\u00a0Whitaker is a former Ralph Lauren Brand Ambassador and a longtime Trump politico.<\/p>\n

The request begins:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requests immediate Department of Defense (DoD) support to provide existing infrastructure to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), a component of DHS, to conduct operations in the Chicago, Illinois metropolitan area. This support is critical to ensuring the efficient and secure handling of aliens in accordance with federal regulations and in line with ICE\u2019s ongoing efforts to address public safety and national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Screenshot of leaked memo<\/p>\n

The memo goes on to cite several of President Trump\u2019s executive orders and declarations casting southern border immigration as an \u201cinvasion\u201d and a \u201cnational emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The memo says, \u201cDHS seeks to expeditiously execute Presidential guidance to protect the American people against invasion, foreign terrorists, and other national security and public safety threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, when asked if he would deploy the National Guard to Chicago, President Trump replied, \u201cWe\u2019re going in,\u201d adding: \u201cI didn\u2019t say when.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The document represents the first hint of when this will take place \u2014 now. The memo also alludes to a month-long operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoD facilitates the use of Naval Station Great Lakes 30 days of operations in the Chicago Metropolitan area, with the advance party arriving September 2, 2025.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Screenshot of leaked memo<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Illinois National Guard insists that nothing has officially begun yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo units have been activated and we do not have an order or preparatory command for any mission,” deputy director of public affairs for Illinois National Guard William Grove told<\/a> Axios yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another homeland agency, Customs and Border Protection, is also being looped into the operation, a source tells me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a press conference yesterday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson expressed opposition to any military deployment.<\/p>\n

Johnson said that Chicago does \u201cnot want or need military occupation in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know before anything has happened here, that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago,\u201d Pritzker said. \u201cIf someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pritzker was of course referring to an incident in Washington, DC, in which a man hurled a Subway projectile at one of the federal immigration agents deployed to the city. The man was charged with a felony \u2014 an obvious overreach \u2014 but the case fell apart when a grand jury composed of ordinary Americans refused to indict him.<\/p>\n

Opposition to Trump\u2019s assault on major blue state cities even comes from the military itself. As I\u2019ve reported<\/a>, National Guard soldiers deployed to both Los Angeles and DC have expressed opposition to the mission (some even in the military\u2019s own official media<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In Illinois, Guardsmen have already expressed<\/a> opposition to the deployment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National Guard has a sacred mission. We are part of the communities that we serve. We are the neighbors who show up when the flood hits, when the storms tear through the towns and when our country is in crisis,” Illinois National Guard member Demi Palecek said.<\/p>\n

This tracks with what I\u2019m hearing from other servicemembers, who regard the mission asTrump theater and a stain on the mission and reputation of the military. It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t believe in responding to a crisis. They just don\u2019t see one.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a servicemember with any newsworthy information about the Chicago deployment, text me securely via Signal at 202-510-1268. I\u2019ll protect your anonymity.<\/p>\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Edited by William M. Arkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicagoans protesting ICE operations The Department of Homeland Security has requested military assistance for upcoming ICE operations in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":197580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-197579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115141969752824647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}