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Today, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago jointly filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration over their attempts to deploy the National Guard to the state.
Last night, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker shared that Trump “is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States.
Late last night, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut issued a restraining order temporarily prohibiting the president from deploying or relocating any federalized members of any state’s National Guard to Oregon, per reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Today’s lawsuit is filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois–Eastern Division. The plaintiffs are asking a judge to block Trump’s efforts to federalize and deploy troops to Illinois, and to declare the actions unlawful.
According to Chicago journalist Dave Byrnes, federal Judge April Perry in Chicago didn’t issue a temporary restraining order barring members of the Texas National Guard from coming to Illinois. Since the lawsuit is lengthy and was filed this morning, Perry is giving the federal government until Wednesday at midnight to respond to the lawsuit. Oral arguments are scheduled for Thursday. Byrnes also reports that, per Illinois lawyers, Texas guard members are set to board a flight to Illinois at 4:00 p.m. today. Federal attorneys corroborated, Byrnes reports, but said guard members wouldn’t be on streets until tomorrow at the earliest.
The lawsuit lists out legal background, including a history of the National Guard originating “from the longstanding tradition of organized local militias.”
It also lists out allegations against Trump, including his “long history of animus towards Chicago and Illinois.”
“The supposed current emergency is belied by the fact that Trump’s Chicago troop deployment threats began more than ten years ago. In a social media post from 2013 Trump writes, ‘we need our troops on the streets of Chicago, not in Syria,’” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit includes multiple screenshots of Trump’s posts on his social media platform, Truth Social. Included is the “Chipocalypse Now” post from Sept. 6, in which Trump shared an AI-generated war image of himself “dressed as a military officer from the film Apocalypse Now.”
“The post riffed on a line from the film in which a character celebrated using napalm on a Vietnamese village, writing ‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Referring to the announcement by Trump and defendant Hegseth a day earlier that they would rebrand the Department of Defense as the ‘Department of War,’ the post also threatened that ‘Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,’” the lawsuit states.
Pritzker and Johnson are scheduled to speak at a 2:00 p.m. press conference in Chicago.
At 9:00 a.m. today, Johnson signed an executive order establishing “ICE-free Zones” on city-owned property and with participating private businesses.
2:13 p.m.
“There is no invasion here. There is no insurrection here,” Pritzker said at the opening of his press conference. “And local and state law enforcement are on the job and managing what they need to.”
Pritzker says Trump is using service members in his plans to militarize American cities. The TRiiBE interviewed organizers from Washington, D.C. about what militarism looks like in their city under Trump.
Pritzker referenced Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino telling a local reporter that they are detaining people based on how they look.
“Donald Trump, Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino have brought their militarized CBP and ICE agents to the streets of Chicago to cause violence and chaos in this city,” Pritzker said. “They need to stop inciting our city’s residents.”
2:16 p.m.
Pritzker says Trump wants to justify and normalize the presence of armed forces in cities.
“The Trump administration is following a playbook: cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city,” Pritzker said.
2:20 p.m.
Pritzker talks the discrepancies in Homeland Security’s initial narrative about fatally shooting Silverio Villegas González in suburban Franklin Park, and how body-worn camera footage disproved their initial narrative
“Silverio’s children have now been left without a father, and they and the public deserve to know the truth. There’s been zero accountability or transparency from ice or the administration,” Pritzker said.
He also talks about the ICE raid on the South Shore apartment building, and how DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posted a cinematic sizzle-reel of the raid.
“They brought blackhawk military helicopters and more than 100 agents in full tactical gear, even though it was supposedly a very dangerous and important mission. They brought dozens of cameras and set them up so that they could film their attack on the building in HD for social media. See for yourself,” Pritzker says. He then shows the video on screen.
“Imagine being a child awakened in the middle of the night by a blackhawk helicopter landing on your roof. Imagine an armed stranger entering your home and forcibly removing you from your bed, zip-tying your hands, separating you from your family and detaining you in a dark van for hours. This didn’t happen in some far away authoritarian regime. It happened right here in Chicago, right here in the United States of America,” Pritzker said.
He continued: “The reports of excessive use of force against children is unconscionable, and the way many innocent residents who lived in the building were treated is appalling. In response, I’ve directed the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Illinois Department of Human Services to provide support and to evaluate the treatment of the children who were traumatized. If they find suspected abuse or neglect by federal agents, the state will be taking every possible action to hold those individuals accountable.”
2:26 p.m.
Pritzker then speaks to the little girl who was detained with her family in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.
“How did detaining them make anyone safer?” he asks.
He talks about Broadview, a suburb with a population of 8,000 people, and the way federal agents have detained a journalist, fired chemical irritants at protestors and more.
“After seeing this, I could not, in good faith, allow federal agents to continue inciting people who were there to express their First Amendment rights. At the request of the Broadview Police Department and with the help of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, we sent back up to ensure people could safely express their rights while also protecting nearby Broadview residents who have had ICE and CBP operating in their neighborhoods in an aggressive fashion and interfering with their daily lives,” Pritzker said.
2:30 p.m.
Pritzker lays out what happened in Logan Square with federal agents tossing tear gas canisters in a neighborhood with a school nearby.
He then shows footage of Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes being detained by federal agents for asking for a judicial warrant for someone inside the hospital emergency room.
“If arresting an elected official for peacefully asking questions isn’t a demonstration of authoritarianism, then what is?” Pritzker asks.
He added: “The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get Noem’s thugs the hell out of Chicago. I’m not afraid. I am not afraid, and I won’t back down.”
2:43 p.m.
Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at the podium following Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s remarks.
“Today, I stand with all of our elected officials and community leaders in denouncing President Trump’s declared war on Chicago and Illinois,” Johnson said. “I promise that the city of Chicago will do everything in our power to protect the constitutional rights of all Chicagoans. This lawsuit is the latest demonstration of our commitment.”
Johnson said Trump initially worked to defund sanctuary cities.
“A federal judge recently dismissed that lawsuit, and the courts have prevented the administration from restricting the city’s funding based on our local laws. Now that the president has lost those cases, he is changing tactics: send in the guard,” Johnson said.
2:48 p.m.
Notably missing from today’s press conferences — Johnson held one this morning and Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling held one this afternoon — is new Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.
Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle took the podium and thanked the leaders in the room. She named a few: members of our congressional delegation, Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Congressman Mike Quigley (IL-05), Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL), Congresswoman Robin Kelly and Congressman Danny K. Davis.
3:00 p.m.
State and local leaders are taking questions from the press.
Raoul takes a question about the timing of the lawsuit.
“I’ve known of talk about the Illinois National Guard for weeks, but it was not ripe for filing. Your interpretation, from perhaps a journalistic point of view, is different from that from a legal point of view. I don’t want to file a lawsuit that summarily dismiss because it’s not ripe for filing,” Raoul said.
3:05 p.m.
Mayor Johnson takes a question about Snelling’s comments that police do not arrest federal agents.
“The executive orders are about ensuring that we are protecting the people of Chicago and defending our democracy. I’ve given very direct instructions to ensure that all of our sister agencies and our city departments are doing just that, upholding the local ordinances and, again, protecting and defending the rights of every single resident as far as being able to enforce the measures that we put forward,” Johnson said. “We’re going to use every single tool that’s available to us, as I’ve stated before, you just heard the governor express it as well, this battle is going to take place in the courts and in our communities.”
3:30 p.m.
Trump again called Chicago a “war zone” today. He took questions after his afternoon press conference.
“Why is it that a governor wouldn’t accept free help? Trump said. “Chicago’s a great city potentially.”
Trump said his administration has “no choice” but to save Chicago, Portland and other unsafe places.
“We’re going to make Chicago really great again,” Trump said.
Earlier today, Pritzker said Chicago is experiencing historic lows in crime.
Asked about the Insurrection Act, Trump said he will enact it if he needs to.
