Federal Judge Halts Trump’s Chicago Military Deployment

A federal judge Thursday froze President Donald Trump’s attempt to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops in and around Chicago, saying the president lacked the authority to do so.

U.S. District Judge April Perry, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, found that the Trump administration’s account of recent protests in Chicago were not credible and could not amount to a “rebellion” against the federal government.

“I have seen no credible evidence that there is danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois,” Perry said while ruling from the bench, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The judge temporarily enjoined the Trump administration from ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard within Illinois.

In a statement on social media, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) hailed the court order, saying it “confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois.”

“Donald Trump is not a king — and his administration is not above the law,” Pritzker said.

After threatening to send troops into Chicago for months, Trump earlier this week federalized members of the Illinois and Texas Guard and deployed them into the city over the repeated objections of local and state officials.

Illinois and Chicago sued, arguing that Trump’s deployment was based on false claims and threatened its sovereignty. 

The Trump administration claimed the troops are needed to protect federal property and law enforcement officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies who have been unable to carry out immigration law because of allegedly violent protests in the city.

Illinois and Chicago have argued the Trump administration has mischaracterized conditions in the city by omitting the fact that protests and unrest have been in response to the Department of Homeland Security’s aggressive immigration operations in the city.

Pritzker has warned that through the Chicago deployment and other military interventions, Trump seeks to impose his will on Democratic-led cities. He has charged that Trump may be attempting to normalize the presence of soldiers on American streets in preparation for taking control of future elections.

As of Thursday afternoon, around 200 Texas troops began their deployment in the Chicago area. In addition to Texas troops, the Trump administration also sent California National Guard soldiers to Illinois.

Perry said recent grand jury rejections of federal prosecutions and judicial rulings in separate lawsuits cast doubt on the Department of Homeland Security’s “credibility and assessment of what is happening on the streets of Chicago.”

The judge disagreed with the Trump administration’s assessment that agents have not been able to carry out federal law in Chicago, noting that deportations and arrests were up and courthouses remained open and functional.

The judge noted that a military deployment in Chicago, rather than soothing conditions, would likely incite further unrest.

The White House over the weekend announced Trump had authorized hundreds of Guard soldiers, alleging they were needed to respond to “violent riots and lawlessness” in Chicago. The White House, however, did not specify what Guard units Trump federalized, what statute he used in doing so.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later issued an Oct. 4 memo stating that the president had called up to 300 members of the Illinois Guard into federal service for 60 days to assist ICE and other federal law enforcement officials in Chicago. 

Hegseth released a second memo saying Trump had also federalized 400 Texas Guard soldiers missions beyond the state of Texas, “including in the cities of Portland and Chicago.” Soon after, Texas Guard troops began arriving and deploying into the greater Chicago area.

Both of Hegseth’s memos cited 10 U.S.C. 12406, an archaic and rarely used statute that allows the president to federalize state Guard troops when the country faces foreign invasion, when the U.S. government faces rebellion or when the president is unable to execute laws with regular resources.

Even though Hegseth had already issued orders federalizing Illinois Guard members, Trump Monday issued a memo announcing to the public that he federalized the Illinois Guard. 

The memo said the Illinois troops would remain under Trump’s command until Pritzker “consents to a federally-funded mobilization, under Title 32 of the United States Code,” referring to another statute under which Guard members are federally funded and regulated but are commanded and controlled by the governor.

In a court filing Thursday, Illinois said Trump’s memo “seeks to strong arm” Pritzker into agreeing to a Title 32 deployment and thus violated the state’s Tenth Amendment rights.

“Once again, Defendants have put an impermissible, coercive, unconstitutional ‘choice’ to Illinois,” the state said.

The state also argued the memo violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the president from using soldiers to enforce federal law, by saying troops “may perform those protective activities that the Secretary of [Defense] determines are reasonably necessary to ensure the execution of Federal law in Illinois.”

Illinois said Trump’s “sweeping statement” included “no limitation on which federal laws the National Guard can execute or where they can do so.”

In a hearing earlier Thursday, Judge Perry appeared concerned with the broad authority Trump’s memo appeared to give Hegseth and tried to get Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to clarify exactly how troops would be used in Chicago.

In response, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton would not confirm that troops would only be used to protect federal personnel and property in the city.

Perry, too, asked if under 10 U.S.C. 12406 it mattered that the government was unable to execute federal law because of its own provocative conduct. Hamilton said it didn’t, implying that the government could deliberately foment unrest and cite that unrest in deploying troops. 

Trump sending the military to Chicago was months in the making. He has routinely linked the deployment to general crime in the city, even though federal law generally prevents military personnel from acting as routine police officers. 
In a social media post earlier this week, Trump said Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should be in jail for allegedly failing to protect ICE agents.