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National Guard begins patrol near Chicago as two courts weigh Trump deployments
CHICAGO — Courts in Illinois and Oregon on Thursday will weigh the objections of Democratic governors to US President Donald Trump's National Guard deployments in those states, as soldiers began patrolling at a Chicago-area immigration facility that has become a focal point of protests.
A federal judge in Illinois will decide whether to temporarily stop the National Guard from deploying to Chicago, while an appeals court in California will review a lower court's temporary order blocking Trump’s decision to send troops to Portland, Oregon.
About seven or eight soldiers milled around inside the gates at an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, on the outskirts of Chicago on Thursday carrying sidearms but without rifles, shields or other riot gear.
The facility, run by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been the focus of protests since a federal immigration enforcement surge began last month. ICE officers have fired pepper balls, tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators.
The Trump administration has marshaled 500 National Guard soldiers near Chicago, including hundreds from Texas, as the legal battles play out.
National Guard troops are state-based militia forces that, despite wearing US Army uniforms, usually answer to their governors, although the president can commandeer them in limited circumstances. They are more typically deployed to assist with natural disasters.
A coalition of 24 states filed a brief on Wednesday in support of Oregon and California's lawsuit opposing the National Guard deployment in Portland. In urging the appeals court to uphold the lower court, the states argued that the deployment defies the US Constitution, overrides the state of Oregon’s authority and endangers communities in Portland.
Trump says the troops are necessary to protect federal ICE officers who he says are under threat from street protesters and Democratic elected officials who have refused to cooperate with the White House. Democratic governors and mayors in turn have accused the president of manufacturing a crisis out of political motivations.
Trump is facing four lawsuits over his troop deployments to Portland, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Chicago. The deployments have been found illegal by the two trial courts that have reached early decisions, as judges ruled that protests in Los Angeles and Portland did not warrant a military response.
But the California court has so far been overruled by the same appeals court that will oversee the Portland case, saying the president’s military decisions must be given great deference.
Trump officials have branded as violent the street protests against his immigration crackdown, though the demonstrations have mostly been small and peaceful, especially when compared to the 2020 demonstrations that erupted across the country following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
At the federal courthouse in Chicago, where arguments will be heard on Thursday over Trump's Illinois deployment, the chief judge issued a statement saying "at no point" had she authorized or requested the National Guard's assistance to secure the building.
The judge, Virginia Kendall, who chairs the court's building security committee, said she works closely with the US Marshals Service, which has jurisdiction over the interior and exterior security of the courthouse.
Her statement appeared to be in response to a declaration filed in court from an Army general on Wednesday that said Guard soldiers would be dispatched to the courthouse on Friday due to "two high-profile cases" involving Department of Homeland Security officers.
Niave Knell, the deputy commanding general for operations for the US Army North Command, said in the declaration that those soldiers, as well as soldiers protecting personnel and property at the ICE facility in Broadview, were the only authorized mobilizations as of Wednesday.
Outside the detention facility in Broadview, protesters this week have raised concerns that the National Guard troops would escalate tensions.
“I guess I’m ready to get hit by a live round,” Will Creutz, 22, an administrative assistant from Chicago whose body is already bruised from pepper ball strikes, said on Wednesday. “When I survive this and I’m able to think about what I did when something horrible was happening, I will be able to sleep peacefully knowing that I did something.”
Several hundred people marched in downtown Chicago on Wednesday evening, protesting the deployment.
In addition to the usual slate of protest chants, people shouted “Todos somos Silverio” or “We are all Silverio” after the fatal shooting of immigrant Silverio Villegas Gonzalez by ICE agents in a Chicago suburb in September.
The Chicago police presence was relatively light at the event, with no obvious sign of federal agents. — Reuters
