The governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, accused the Trump administration on Monday of organizing a “military -style invasion” of Chicago, hitting fear in residents with “thugs” tactics by immigration agents and even deploying black hawk helicopters to attack a apartment building.
Pritzker criticized the repression of immigration of the Trump administration addressed to Chicago only a few hours after the state and the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit that sought to block the federalization and deployment of the National Guard.
“Let me be clear, Donald Trump is using the members of our service as political accessories and as pawns in their illegal effort to militarize the cities of our nation,” said Pritzker during a press conference.
To support his point, Pritzker played a video of an ice raid made last week in an apartment complex in the Chicago South Shore neighborhood, according to federal authorities with high -definition cameras for social networks purposes. He said he was the same video secretary of the United States National Security Department. Kristi Noem posted on social networks on Saturday.
“Black Hawk military helicopters brought and more than 100 full tactical team agents,” Pritzker said.
He added: “On the night floor and apparently for the cameras, the armed federal agents emerged from the Black Hawk helicopters, rapting to the roof of that apartment building.”
The governor claimed that the Trump administration is following a play book to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem that peaceful protesters are a mafia when shooting gas granules and tear gas boats.”
The tear gas fills the air after it was used by federal agents of application of the law that were being faced by members and community activists for, according to the reports, shoot a woman in the neighborhood of Brighton Park on October 4, 2025 on Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
“Why? To create the pretext to invoke the insurrection law so you can send military troops to our city,” said Pritzker.
The National Security Department issued a press release on Monday, claiming to discredit a “smorgasbord of lies” with the governor.
“Our message to JB Pritzker: salt from his mansion and see Chicago,” said the assistant secretary of DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, in the statement. “If JB Pritzker really walks through the streets of his own city, he would see national terrorists and violent uproar who attacked police officers and the scourge of violent crimes as a direct result of their own policies.”
Speaking to journalists at the Oval office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he still did not see the need to use the insurrection law, but “if he had to promulgate it, he would do so, if the people were killed and that the courts were retaining us, or the governors or the mayors retained us.”
Chief of Staff of the White House for politics Stephen Miller quoted two incidents during the weekend in which the protesters rammed the vehicles of the immigration agents in Chicago, which caused the shooting of a protester, to whom the federal authorities assumed that they drove one of the vehicles and was armed.
“The struggle that is carried out at this time is among the legal exercise of power by the American people through a properly elected government against the illegal exercise of street violence in the form of domestic terrorism,” Miller told journalists from the White House.
Miller added: “The clearest example of this is when you have ICE officers, who carry out the statutes and laws of the United States to arrest and eliminate illegal foreigners, who are being subject to violent attacks in the conduct of their duties. That is an example of illegitimate violence, illegitimate power in the form of domestic terrorism that is accustomed to the behavior of their official duties.”
In his lawsuit filed on Monday morning, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago asked a judge to block the deployment of the military troops of the Trump administration to Chicago.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States Army, particularly not simply because their leadership of the city or the State has fallen from the favor of a president,” the complaint said.
The fundamental principle that separates the military from domestic affairs is “in danger”, since President Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard in cities from all over the country, the lawyers of Illinois and Chicago wrote in a lawsuit.
The lawyers of the plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to issue an order that blocks the National Guard of any state of being federalized and deployed in Illinois, arguing that the State is being attacked because its “leadership has fallen from the favor of a president.”
“There is no insurrection in Illinois. There is no rebellion in Illinois. The federal government can enforce federal law in Illinois. The manufactured nature of the crisis is clear, “according to the 69 -page complaint.
Illinois and Chicago lawyers argue that Trump has not justified to assume the National Guard based on Federal Law, which allows federalization in response to a rebellion or invasion, and violates the POSSE Committus Law that prohibits the use of the military in the application of the National Law.
Protesters face the police during a protest outside a processing and immigrant processing center, on October 3, 2025 on Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
“The illegal deployment of the defendants of the Illinois National Guard, about the objection of the State, is similar to the illegal behavior that they have taken against other disadvantaged states and cities,” said the complaint.
The lawsuit cites the publications of Trump’s social networks about the shipment of the militarized police to Chicago, including a publication in which he said: “I love deportations smell in the morning”, and their recent comments on the use of cities led by Democrat “as a training terrain for our military.”
The lawsuit occurs after a federal judge blocked Trump to send National Guard troops to Oregon, where protesters have gathered in an area of a block surrounding the United States immigration and customs compliance building in Portland.
In the ruling issued on Saturday, the American district judge Karin Immunicipal granted a temporary restriction order requested by California and Oregon.
“This country has a long -standing and fundamental resistance tradition to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion in civil matters,” Immorct wrote.
“This historical tradition is reduced to a simple proposal: this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” said the judge.
Immergut, who Trump appointed the United States District Court for the Oregon district during his first term, issued the ruling per day after Trump authorized the deployment of 300 troops from the National Guard of Illinois to Chicago to protect federal officers and federal assets in the city.
Trump has described that both Portland and Chicago are invaded by violence and disturbances. It has characterized both cities as “war zones.”
But the governors of Oregon and Chicago have responded that Trump has greatly exaggerated violence in those cities to justify their actions.
A federal agent of application of the law confronts the protesters of the turret of a armored vehicle during a protest outside a processing and detention center of immigrants on October 3, 2025, on Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Amid the growing tensions in Chicago on the repression of immigration of the Trump administration, customs agents and the Trump border patrol shot on Saturday and wounded a woman who alleged that she was part of a convoy of protesters who rammed her vehicles during an “ambush.”
The secretary of the National Security Department, Kristi Noem, said that the border patrol agents opened fire against the woman in self -defense, claiming that she was armed with a semi -automatic weapon and driving one of the three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed the vehicles of the CBP agents.
In a second incident in Chicago on Saturday, a man was arrested after he allegedly rammed a CBP vehicle in an attempt to get him out of the road, according to the DHS.
Trump lit a war of words with the leaders of Illinois and Chicago in early September when he suggested sending the National Guard to the Windy city, saying in a publication on social networks: “Chicago is about to discover why the war department is called.”
In the publication, Trump added: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning”, a wink often quoted “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning” of the war film “Apocalypse Now”.
Initially, Trump insisted that he was waiting for Chicago officials to ask for the help of the federal government before sending to the National Guard.
The federal agents of application of the law are guards while facing community members and activists for, according to reports, shoot a woman in the neighborhood of Brighton Park on October 4, 2025 on Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Pritzker made it clear at a September press conference that would not make such a request, telling journalists: “When did we become a country where it is fine that the president of the United States insists on national television that a state should call it to beg for something, especially something we don’t want?”
On Monday morning, the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, signed an executive order creating “areas without ice” in the city.
The mayor’s order prohibits federal immigration agents from using properties owned by the city in its immigration application. The order also invites local businesses and community organizations to join the effort of the city to “safeguard our communities, while moving forward measures to control the reckless behavior of federal immigration agents.”
“With this executive order, Chicago is firm in the protection of the constitutional rights of our residents and communities of immigrants and defending our democracy,” Johnson said in a statement.
“We will not tolerate ICE agents to violate the constitutional rights of our residents or allow the federal government to ignore our local authority. ICE agents are stopping elected officials, Protestants, children and Chicago police officers, and abusing Chicago residents,” said Johnson. “We will not defend that in our city.”
Miller said that Johnson’s executive order is the last example of Democratic politicians who reject attacks against federal agents.
“The mayor of Chicago has not only been able to condemn the violent and obstructive acts against the ice and the application of the law, but after two coordinated attempts of murders of ICE officers through vehicle packaging attacks, he issued an area not Go for ICE officers,” said Miller.
