Former President Donald Trump on midweek called for the incarceration of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding ICE agents.
"Chicago's Mayor should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic faction.
These remarks coincide with the deployment of state military personnel in the Windy City area following directives from the current government, despite vehement protests from Illinois authorities including the governor and mayor.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump has sought to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I will not yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the path to complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, National Guard troops from Texas had arrived at the Elwood army reserve center, a military installation approximately 50 miles from Chicago, as the federal government pushes forward with its hardline crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", despite police data indicate significant drops in most criminal activities, including murders.
On Wednesday, two hundred state guard troops were expected to deploy to the Chicago area, with another 300 state military personnel preparing to mobilize, per reports. Authorities reportedly stated the soldiers would avoid law enforcement duties but would protect federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with state guard patches were observed at the US army reserve center in the town. Trucks labeled "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were set up in lines. Additional fencing was placed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions over the military base for safety concerns until early December.
Federal authorities has intensified deportation operations in the city in the past month, triggering protests, particularly near an processing facility in Broadview.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the federal government, attempting to halt the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, labeling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their case is scheduled for Thursday.
The mayor also issued an directive on Monday banning ICE officers and others from using city-owned property as operation bases for deportation efforts.
Pritzker has charged Trump of using military forces as "political props" and "pawns".
At a news conference on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and normalize the presence of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the army's involvement in civilian law enforcement. However, the president has stated he would be prepared to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a president to send regular army in regions that are failing to suppress an uprising or are defying national authority.
After beginning his second term, the president has sent or discussed sending troops to over ten urban centers, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, arguing that the armed forces is essential to fight violence and defend immigration agents.
Data indicates that most violent crime nationwide has declined in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were down 31% to 278 through August, per law enforcement reports.
New survey data published on that day found that the majority of US citizens disapprove of the deployment of military forces without an foreign danger.
