But as Trump toys with the idea of militarizing some of the country\u2019s most Democratic cities \u2014 in turn, testing the limits of presidential power \u2014 the idea of increased law enforcement patrolling the city\u2019s neighborhoods weighs heavily on Chicago\u2019s Black communities, whose relationship with law enforcement is rooted in historical tensions and present-day fear.<\/p>\n
For residents of primarily Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides, terms like \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d \u201cDeath Trap,\u201d \u201cChipocalypse Now\u201d \u2014 all phrases the Trump administration has used when talking about Chicago amid this month\u2019s immigration crackdown \u2014 can be detrimental, say mental health professionals, community leaders and everyday residents.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s frightening, said Parker, a lifelong Chicagoan. With federal immigration agents already crawling across the city, detaining people going to work, dropping their kids off at school or going to court, it\u2019s nerve-wracking, she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Jadah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-national-guard-threat-03_239561042.jpg\")
Jadah Parker, a lifelong Chicagoan, walks to her home in the Washington Park neighborhood on Sept. 24, 2025. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Black woman \u2026 and even if I\u2019m not necessarily the target, I fear that I might see that happening and then I don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d she said. \u201cAm I cowering out (by) not doing anything? Do I film? Am I going to be retaliated against?\u201d<\/p>\n
The National Guard in the city<\/a> is not new. A review of the Tribune\u2019s archives found 18 events in which the governor activated the National Guard within Chicago. Two of them \u2014 both during the 19th century \u2014 involved a sitting U.S. president who acted in coordination with the governor.<\/p>\n But if it happens under Trump, it\u2019s over the objections of a sitting governor<\/a> who has already threatened a legal battle<\/a>. Gov. JB Pritzker has also mocked Trump\u2019s wavering threats,<\/a> saying recently that \u201cyou can\u2019t take anything that he says seriously from one day to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s attacking verbally, sometimes he attacks, sending his agents in, sometimes he forgets. I think he might be suffering from some dementia. The next day, he\u2019ll wake up on the other side of the bed and stop talking about Chicago,\u201d Pritzker, an ardent critic of Trump and a potential 2028 White House aspirant, said of the president.<\/p>\n Still, the \u201cwill he or won\u2019t he?\u201d discussion becomes the \u201cgreatest frustration,\u201d said Karen Freeman-Wilson, president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League. Anyone could become Trump\u2019s next target, she said.<\/p>\n Creating chaos doesn\u2019t respect the law or the concept of due process, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is simply disrespectful to the people who live in a democracy. And it\u2019s intentionally so, it\u2019s not an accident,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rev. Marshall Hatch Sr. calls it \u201ctraumatizing.\u201d<\/p>\n The senior pastor of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church of West Garfield was living in the former Jane Addams Homes on the city\u2019s Near West Side when the National Guard was deployed to Chicago in 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had just been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Hatch was 10 years old at the time.<\/p>\n King\u2019s murder had sparked riots across the country. In Chicago, on the first night of rioting, nine people, all Black, were killed. Two days later, with the approval of Mayor Richard J. Daley, thousands of troops descended on the city\u2019s most troubled areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c(I remember) seeing soldiers going up and down the street and chaos across the West Side,\u201d he said, \u201cand as a resident of public housing and maybe feeling somewhat unprotected.\u201d<\/p>\n It \u201cfelt like under occupation as a little kid,\u201d said Hatch. Especially when Daley gave his infamous police order to \u201cshoot to kill\u201d against arsonists, he said.<\/p>\n Now, with the present threat, it almost feels like, hour by hour, there\u2019s this \u201cominous, sort of bracing\u201d for what\u2019s to come, Hatch said.<\/p>\n Last month, Trump deployed 2,300 National Guard members<\/a> to the District of Columbia in the name of reducing crime. Wearing fatigues and carrying M17 pistols, the Guard units gathered in groups near tourist hotspots like the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Some were tasked to pick up trash and spread mulch, others forcibly removed people sleeping in federal parks.<\/p>\n The images were troubling for Parker\u2019s 27-year-old sister, Daynah, who attended college in the district and now lives in Woodlawn. The back-and-forth has her feeling restless.<\/p>\n \u201cWas this all just to get us like this and you\u2019re not actually coming?\u201d she said. \u201cBut then you saw what happened in D.C. and you think, \u2018Maybe they will come.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Jaylen Hughes, 18, was born and raised in Chicago, and lives in Englewood. The Noble Academy high school student said Trump has it all wrong about the city.<\/p>\n \u201c(Trump) is making it feel like it\u2019s a warzone but it\u2019s really not,\u201d Hughes said on a recent afternoon, as he stood on a sidewalk in River North. \u201cThese are people\u2019s homes. You can\u2019t just come in and do what you want to do just because you have power. That don\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n The fear folks have now is rational and appropriate, considering the National Guard\u2019s history, according to Elizabeth Todd-Breland, a history professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said that historically, people viewed the National Guard as defenders of civil rights \u2014 particularly in the South when troops were called in to force desegregation in education.<\/p>\n However, that perspective changed in the 1960s, she said, when the troops were used to suppress demonstrations and target Black protesters who rose up against deep, systemic injustices, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Black people who have borne the brunt of over-policing in our neighborhoods,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that there are many Black folks who have a very strong aversion to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Marshall Gibson owns a building in Englewood, a community that has been hurt by decades-long injustices such as disinvestment, redlining and land sale contracts. But it\u2019s also a place where residents are seeking to reclaim the narrative<\/a> of their Black community.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the years, many of the mostly Venezuelan migrants who arrived in Chicago during Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s campaign to bus asylum-seekers to sanctuary cities resettled on the South and West sides<\/a>. Neighborhoods like Englewood were more affordable but also untethered from a support system with familial and cultural ties. Unlike waves of immigrants before them, there was no established community for them to settle in.<\/p>\n While it sometimes seemed like an uneasy truce within the Black neighborhoods the migrants moved into, landlords like Gibson made space for those who arrived.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to stay vigilant and keep my eyes open for what\u2019s to come,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cThe community is divided. The talk of the National Guard coming just keeps putting people on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ctc-26347377.jpg\")
A youth on the West Side points fingers at members of the Illinois National Guard on duty in the area on April 6, 1968, during the riots that broke out after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (William Kelly\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"Venezuelan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-migrant-family-update-33_200246638.jpg\")
Venezuelan migrant Pedro Mendez plays with a basketball outside his home during the Fourth of July holiday in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago, July 4, 2024. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
![\"Middle](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CTC-L-national-guard-threat15_235717024.jpg\")
Middle school students from It Takes a Village Leadership Academy in Bronzeville, Lyric Amparan, Kayden Mayo, and Kyleigh Redmond discussed the possible threat of a National Guard deployment to Chicago. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n