Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order aimed at limiting the authority of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops, saying it was a response to President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy them to Illinois.
“We find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach,” said Johnson, a Democrat, during a press conference.
Johnson said the order directs the city’s law department to use “every legal mechanism” to block Trump’s potential deployment plan.
Johnson added later that he would use “every single tool that is at our disposal, and that includes the courts.”
“It’s an area in which at least there’s some semblance of check and balance in this country,” he said, per NBC News.
Johnson said the executive order lays out several additional directives beyond challenging Trump’s potential deployment plan. Among them are rules clarifying what, if any, assistance Chicago police officers may provide to federal law enforcement, as well as prohibitions on concealing their faces or covering the Chicago Police Department’s insignia while in uniform.
The mayor said these measures were designed to ensure transparency and accountability in the event of federal operations taking place in the city, NBC reported.
“This order affirms that the Chicago Police Department will not collaborate with military personnel on police patrols or civil immigration enforcement. We will not have our police officers, who are working hard every single day to drive down crime, deputized to do traffic stops and checkpoints for the president,” Johnson told the press conference.
“We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans,” he added.
Johnson’s order comes as President Trump has already deployed troops and federal law enforcement to Washington, D.C., and threatened to do the same in other cities, including Baltimore.
Democrats, meanwhile, have put themselves in the position of opposing the president’s crime-fighting efforts, which isn’t likely to play well at the polls during next year’s midterms. While they attempt to frame Trump’s efforts as federal overreach, in fact, the actions are being taken to enforce specific federal laws including those governing illegal immigration.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, another Democrat, somewhat praised Trump’s crime-fighting effort in the nation’s capital earlier this week, saying there have been serious reductions in crime.
Johnson on Saturday said that the city has “received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our cities see some type of militarized activity by the federal government.”
“It is unclear at this time what that will look like exactly. We may see militarized immigration enforcement. We may also see National Guard troops. We may even see active-duty military and armed vehicles in our streets,” Johnson added.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded on Saturday to Johnson’s announcement, accusing the mayor of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer. Cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue, but Democrats suffering from TDS are trying to make it one,” Jackson said, per NBC.
“They should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington DC,” she added.
A day earlier, Trump border czar Tom Homan told Fox News the administration was looking at expanding operations to Chicago.
“Chicago is coming, along with every other sanctuary city,” Homan said. “President Trump is committed that we’re going to focus on and prioritize sanctuary cities because that is where the problem is.”
“Get out of the way, because we’re going to do it,” he added.
