In early October, President Donald Trump federalized the National Guard from several states and deployed them into Chicago amid anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests.
Among the National Guard units that were deployed to Chicago were 300 guardsmen from the Illinois National Guard, and 200 guardsmen from the Texas National Guard, according to a statement from United States Northern Command.
The stated mission of these units was to protect ICE and other U.S. government personnel and to protect federal property. However, federal agents and National Guardsmen clashed with protesters multiple times. This included protesters being arrested, shot with pepper balls and body slammed by federal agents, according to an article by NBC Chicago.
The military responses to these protests highlight a government dangerously close to crossing the line when it comes to the right to protest. If a group of people cannot gather to protest what the government is doing without fear of retaliation from government agents and law enforcement, then they are being denied their rights granted by the First Amendment.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker denounced the deployment as unconstitutional and authoritarian. In a news conference covered by NBC News, he said, “Escalation of violence is targeted and intentional and premeditated. The Trump administration is following a playbook. Cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them.”
Following this, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago filed suit against the Trump Administration. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office wrote in the filing statement per NBC News, “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.”
With this statement, the state of Illinois shows that it will stand up to government overreach that is putting its citizens in harm’s way. In response to this, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!”Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have not been shown to have committed crimes, they have not been indicted by a grand jury, nor have they been accused of anything other than “failing to protect ICE agents,” when that is not a crime or even their job. Trump has no standing to call for their arrests.
There is no saying where this could lead. It could just be more meaningless words on social media, as many posts are. However, if Trump can call for Illinois’ democratically elected officials to be arrested for disagreeing with him politically, what is to stop him from calling for the arrest of your elected officials when they fall out of line?
If the highest office in the land can swing his power like a sword against political dissidents, then we have stopped being a democracy.
Christopher Sprague can be reached at [email protected].