U.S. President Donald Trump has called for the arrest of the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, both Democrats, as his administration prepares to send military troops onto the streets of the third-largest U.S. city.
Trump’s call to arrest two prominent opponents of his immigration crackdown comes as another high-profile political rival, former FBI Director James Comey, is due in court to face criminal charges that have been widely criticized as flimsy.
On his social media platform, Trump accused Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker of failing to protect immigration agents working in Chicago.
“The Mayor of Chicago should be in jail for not protecting ICE officers! Governor Pritzker too!” Trump wrote, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers gathered at an Army installation outside Chicago, despite objections from Pritzker, Johnson, and other state Democratic leaders. Trump threatened to send troops to more U.S. cities, which he said last week could serve as “training grounds” for the military.
Trump ordered the deployment of Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, following his earlier deployments to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. In each case, he defied fierce opposition from Democratic mayors and governors, who say Trump’s claims of lawlessness and violence do not reflect reality.
“My goal is very simple. STOP CRIME IN AMERICA!” he wrote on his social media platform.
Violent crime is falling in many US cities since its Covid-era peak, and National Guard troops have so far been used largely to protect federal facilities rather than to combat street crime.
Protests against Trump’s immigration policies in Chicago and Portland were largely peaceful and limited in size, according to local officials, far from the conditions described by Trump administration officials.
Pritzker accused Trump of trying to foment violence to justify further militarization, and his state sued to block the military deployment in the city. On Monday, a federal judge allowed the deployment to proceed for now. Another federal judge blocked the deployment to Portland.
Trump has threatened to invoke an anti-insurrection law to avoid any court order blocking him. This law was last invoked during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Source: brasil247.com