President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois, overruling his state’s Governor JB Pritzker’s objections. The move comes during a time of heightened tensions over handling of protests and public safety in cities across the country led by Democrats. This directive is similar to measures passed in Portland and Chicago. His direct participation in this crisis troops were deployed from Texas with the full approval of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The situation grows even scarier when one considers that Trump is already moving to federalize Illinois’s National Guard. Yet state officials have never been briefed on such a plan.
All indications are that Governor Pritzker would strongly oppose the deployment. He maintained that the Trump administration never once asked for his or his office’s input. This ranged from decisions to federalize the state’s National Guard to send in troops from nearby states. Pritzker’s administration is viewing this as a direct threat to the state sovereignty, self-governance. They contend that it would incite a potential civil disorder and endanger the safety of the people of Illinois.
In response to Trump’s order, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has initiated a lawsuit aimed at preventing the president from mobilizing the state’s National Guard or sending additional troops from other states. In his motion for the preliminary injunction, Raoul stressed that the president’s actions endanger more than just the state’s sovereignty. They endanger public safety.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” – Kwame Raoul
The fight to protect state authority over transportation is symptomatic of a much larger and more existential state-federal power struggle. Thankfully, a Trump-appointed judge in Oregon has already put the brakes on similar plans to deploy troops to Portland. This makes clear that legal challenges will continue to roll in as Trump seeks to further assert control over local law enforcement.
Tensions extend past the borders of Illinois. California Governor Gavin Newsom is very much against the deployment of troops from his state to assist in Oregon, and is working to block them. Since early 2020, the Trump administration has repeatedly railed against Democratic-controlled cities, claiming that local Democrats have let their cities decay and become lawless.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt vigorously defended Trump’s actions. For all its high-profile defenders, she wrote, there’s a case for federal intervention in the face of local failure. Leavitt’s depiction of the story we’re hearing about Trump’s military deployments is a false one.
“You guys are framing this like the president wants to take over the American cities with the military,” – Karoline Leavitt
Leavitt pressed that Trump is looking to empower local leaders who have had a tough time protecting their cities at the national level. Critics say these policies do nothing but increase friction between communities and police.
Raoul went even further in his criticism of the deployment, predicting that it would exacerbate unrest and hurt local economies. He argued that top-down federal intervention would undermine goodwill between residents and police.
“It will cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police,” – Kwame Raoul
As Illinois prepares for possible troop deployment as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, local officials brace for the impact on safety and community relations. The story is far from over, with bad faith legal disputes sure to continue to define the future of policing in Illinois.