After gun violence surged in Chicago over Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump made it clear the city is firmly in his crosshairs.
“We’re going in,” Trump said Tuesday after being asked whether National Guard troops were being deployed to the nation’s third largest city. “I didn’t say when.”
The president presented himself as a savior, claiming he can quickly solve an intractable problem that again came into sharp focus over the long weekend. Sixty people were shot, eight of them fatally, mostly in areas that have long borne the brunt of the city’s gun violence.
And while crime has fallen significantly in recent years, Trump is primed to make an example of Chicago this week, when federal immigration agents and National Guard troops are expected to begin blanketing the streets.
Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday decried Trump’s crime-fighting promise as a partisan ploy to justify an unnecessary military presence in the Democratically-led city. And the governor, along with Illinois’ other most powerful Democrats, are urging members of the public not to fall for it.
“We know before anything has happened here, that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago,” Pritzker said during a Loop news conference alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
“If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago,” Pritzker said. “I’m imploring everyone: If and when that happens, do not take the bait.”
Pritzker said his office has reason to believe the raids are being prompted by Mexican Independence Day festivities taking place in Chicago — and that the Trump administration may have already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office reportedly denied that.
Regardless of the scale of the federal presence that does arrive, local leaders called on the public to record the stepped-up ICE activities they might see in their neighborhoods this month — and to protest them. But Pritzker and company stressed the need to keep the peace as Trump paints a skewed picture of a city in crisis.
“None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer. None of it. For Trump, it’s about testing his power and producing a political drama to cover up for his corruption,” Pritzker said.
Experts who study Chicago’s crime patterns said the plan amounts to a stunt that will likely have little impact and could be “a recipe for disaster.”
“If you deploy federal troops to these hot spot neighborhoods and individuals in these neighborhoods begin to see themselves as being occupied by a military force, so to speak, the small number of federal troops would not be anywhere near enough to deal with any type of pushback or any type of conflict [with] armed gang members,” said Lance Williams, a professor at Northeastern Illinois University.
‘Purely performative’
Pritzker said that his office had finally gotten direct word from ICE leaders that the agency would be stepping up enforcement in Chicago this week, as border czar Tom Homan said in a press conference last week.
Agents with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are expected to be housed at Naval Station Great Lakes near North Chicago this month.
Pritzker wouldn’t identify sources who have told his office the Texas National Guard was preparing for deployment, but he called them “patriotic Americans who either work in the administration or work in the various branches of the military.”
The same goes for intelligence that immigration raids this month are being timed to exploit large Latino gatherings centered around Mexican Independence Day.
“It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try and disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades,” Pritzker said. “The terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here.”
Trump has instituted an unprecedented law enforcement takeover with the National Guard in Washington D.C. But Trump has direct legal control in the capital that he doesn’t have in states — unless there’s threat of a foreign invasion, a domestic rebellion or if the president “is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,” according to federal law governing National Guard service.
“The president’s plan is not about fighting crime. It’s purely performative,” Raoul said. “He is hoping to sow chaos by inciting out of control protests. In Chicago, we have demonstrated that we can protest peacefully.”
Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Dick Durbin called Trump’s Chicago plan “yet another dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional abuse of power” by the president.
“He ignores the reality that violent crime is down in the District of Columbia and in Chicago. And he ignores the fact that under our Constitution, the power to maintain law and order belongs to the states,” Durbin said.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth called it an “unwarranted, unwanted and unjust move straight out of the authoritarian’s playbook that will only undermine our military’s readiness and ultimately weaken our national security.”
City leaders call for help – but not the National Guard
Johnson reiterated that Chicago does “not want or need military occupation in our city” — but he welcomed with open arms additional federal assistance in tracking down the traffickers who funnel weapons into the city from states with more lax gun laws.
“Chicago will continue to have a violence problem as long as red states continue to have a gun problem. Shootings will continue as long as this presidential administration continues to put politics over people,” Johnson said.
Two City Council members scoffed at Trump’s plan to target Chicago, but said they would welcome more federal agents who can work with the understaffed Chicago Police Department on gun and drug investigations.
“Those are the type of partnerships we need and the support we need right now from the federal government,” said Ald. David Moore (17th), whose South Side ward includes Englewood, Auburn Gresham and Marquette Park.
“Along with when we’re talking about fighting crime,” Moore added, “it’s financial resources that this [Trump] administration has to be willing to put up, too.”
Moore said he’s not completely averse to National Guard troops coming to Chicago, but he argued they should come at the city’s request.
Ald. Matt Martin (47th) said it’s “not good enough” that crime has fallen as he reflected on “an incredibly painful weekend for not just the victims and their loved ones, but also the entire communities that have been touched by that horrific violence.”
“People don’t live their day-to-day in stats,” said Martin, chair of the council’s Ethics Committee. “We’re still nowhere near where we need to be.”
Shoot-out in Pilsen kills beloved resident
Residents in Pilsen say the Southwest Side neighborhood “was like a war zone” early Sunday.
A gunman opened fire after being kicked out of a party in an alley in the 1900 block of West 17th Street, setting off a gunfight. More than 50 rounds were fired from four guns, and three men were struck, according to a police report.
Pepe, who some neighbors thought was homeless, was hit multiple times, officials said. The 46-year-old was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, but he hasn’t yet been formally identified.
“He was one of the sweetest guys. He would never harm anyone,” said Gabriel, a man who often saw Pepe and was at his nearby home when the shooting erupted.
Gabriel said neighbors often fed Pepe and tried to look out for him, though he preferred to spend his time walking alone.
Two men who argued with the gunman, ages 41 and 43, were each shot in their legs, police said. They were taken to Mount Sinai in good condition.
Police detained a concealed carry permit holder who admitted he fired back at the gunman. He was released without being charged.
“This part of the neighborhood is pretty calm, but now this makes you think twice about leaving your home,” Gabriel said. “There’s a lot of older people like my parents who like to sit outside. They should be able to do that and be safe.”
Trump’s plan a political stunt, expert says
Wesley Skogan, a crime and policing expert and former Northwestern University professor, said about 55% of gun-related homicides happen in just 10% of the city’s neighborhoods — the same areas where violence broke out this weekend.
However, Skogan noted that there has also been a drop in violence in those hot spots.
As of Sunday, overall crime was down 13% compared to last year, according to police data. Murders and shootings have fallen even further, 31% and 35% respectively.
Skogan said Trump’s plan to send federal agents and the National Guard to Chicago amounts to a political stunt, given that the guard personnel Trump recently deployed to Washington, D.C., have been patrolling “the safest areas in the city.”
“They’re in places where television cameras can find them and tourists can take their pictures,” he said. “And so I anticipate that the same thing is going to happen in Chicago.”
Tina Sfondeles contributed from Washington.