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The Illinois governor is threatening President Donald Trump. The Chicago mayor urged the feds to "invest, not invade." And organizers of a festival celebrating Mexican Independence Day canceled their events.
Chicagoans are bracing for a potential surge in federal immigration agents and National Guard troops that could begin as soon as this weekend – despite vocal protests by state and local leaders and Chicago residents.
"There is no emergency here that warrants the deployment of troops," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a Sept. 4 post on the social media site X. He told reporters the state is prepared "to immediately go to court" if National Guard or other military troops are deployed to the city.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said there is no emergency in the city and urged the Trump administration to use its resources to help the city solve other issues, such as housing affordability and homelessness.
"If the federal government wants to help they should invest, not invade," he said on X.
Meanwhile, the popular two-day El Grito Chicago festival was put on hold due to reports that a ramping-up of ICE raids could come along with the anticipated deployment of the National Guard.
It was "a painful decision," organizers said in a post to the festival website, but holding the event "at this time puts the safety of our community at stake – and that's a risk we are unwilling to take."
Trump has waffled in recent days about whether he will deploy troops to Chicago. On Sept. 2, he said, "We're going in," before walking back the statement a day later when he said he was still in the process of making a determination.
He suggested he'd like Pritzker to invite him to send the National Guard to Chicago, but the governor has resisted the idea. "I want to go into Chicago, and I have this incompetent governor who doesn't want us," he said.
Crime in Chicago has been trending mostly downward since the early 1990s, according to a review of Chicago Police Department annual crime reports.
Most violent crimes and property crimes declined in 2024, the latest period for which annual data is available, compared with the prior year. And violent crimes are down dramatically from their peak three decades ago.
In 1992, Chicago police recorded 940 murders and more than 41,000 aggravated assaults. Last year, there were 580 murders and fewer than 8,000 aggravated assaults, according to the annual reports.
"One homicide is one too many," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a post on X. "But we can continue this historic decline in violence if we keep doing what works: investing in our communities."
The Chicago Police Department has been operating under a consent decree with the Illinois Attorney General to improve policing practices to "keep both community members and officers safe, and restore and build the community's trust in the department." The agreement requires a focus on community policing, improved crisis intervention and use-of-force training compliance.
Trump has made liberal use of the National Guard to achieve his immigration enforcement and crime-fighting plans.
He ordered the National Guard to Los Angeles earlier this year to quell protests against immigration raids there, and he deployed National Guard troops into Washington, DC, in a bid to fight crime.
The capital city deployment has been extended to Nov. 30, but it's not clear if troops will patrol the city for the entire time. The public safety emergency that Trump declared for DC in August is due to expire on Sept. 10.