Texas National Guard troops are en route to Illinois after a federal judge declined to immediately block the deployment in response to a lawsuit from the state against the Trump administration. The troops departed Fort Bliss in El Paso on a US military transport plane on Monday evening.
US District Judge April Perry allowed the federal government to continue the deployment in Chicago while it responds to Illinois's lawsuit. She set a deadline of midnight Wednesday for the government to reply. A similar effort to deploy troops to Portland was blocked by a judge in Oregon.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker condemned the move, stating that the Trump administration had not discussed plans to federalise the state's National Guard or send in troops from other states. “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion,” he said. Pritzker noted that 300 of the state's guard troops were to be federalised and deployed to Chicago, along with 400 from Texas.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the president from calling up the state's National Guard or sending in troops from other states. The lawsuit argues that such actions infringe on state sovereignty and self-governance, leading to unrest and economic harm. “The American people should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military,” it states.
President Donald Trump has targeted Democratic-led cities, sending in military to clamp down on protests and aid his deportation agenda. In Washington, Democratic senators grilled Attorney General Pam Bondi over the use of military in US cities, while Republicans largely supported the decision. Bondi told Senator Dick Durbin: “If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.”
