Former President Donald Trump on midweek demanded the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of not safeguarding federal immigration officers.
"Chicago's Mayor belongs behind bars for failing to secure ICE Officers!" Trump posted on his platform early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker too!"
Both officials are members of the Democratic party.
Trump's statements come alongside the deployment of state military personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the federal administration, notwithstanding strong objections from state officials including the governor and mayor.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump has sought to have a Black man wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I'm not going anywhere."
The governor responded via online channels, stating: "I will not yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the road toward full-blown authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military troops from Texas had reached the Elwood army reserve center, an army base roughly 50 miles from Chicago, as the administration advances with its hardline crime strategy and mass deportation efforts.
The president has called Chicago a "dangerous disaster zone", despite police data indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, such as murders.
On Wednesday, 200 state guard troops were scheduled to arrive to the region, with an additional three hundred state military personnel preparing to mobilize, according to sources. Officials indicated the soldiers would avoid police functions but would secure ICE officers and their facilities.
Soldiers wearing uniforms with Texas national guard insignia were spotted at the US army reserve center in Elwood. Trucks marked "Disaster Relief" dropped off sanitation facilities and other supplies. Mobile units were arranged in lines. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered no-fly zones over the army reserve center for safety concerns until early December.
The administration has escalated immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, triggering protests, particularly near an immigration center in a Chicago suburb.
Earlier this week, state and city filed a lawsuit against the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, urging a court to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, calling it "unlawful and risky".
Legal proceedings on their case is set for Thursday.
The mayor also issued an executive order on that day prohibiting federal immigration agents and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
The governor has charged the president of using military forces as "staged tools" and "chess pieces".
At a news conference on Tuesday, he said that the president is trying to "justify and normalize the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are failing to suppress an uprising or are resisting national authority.
Since starting his second term, the president has sent or discussed deploying troops to over ten urban centers, including major metropolitan areas and California cities like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, claiming that the military presence is necessary to combat crime and defend ICE officers.
Data shows that serious offenses across the US has decreased in recent years. In Chicago, for example, murders were down nearly one-third to under three hundred through late summer, per police data.
New survey data published on that day revealed that the majority of US citizens oppose the deployment of military forces without an external threat.
