US President Donald Trump has suggested that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker should be imprisoned for "failing to protect" federal immigration enforcement officers.
"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!" he wrote on his US social media company Truth Social in a post amid rising tensions about the administration's immigration enforcement policy and the deployment of federal National Guard forces to the city.
CNN reported Monday that a plane carrying troops from the Texas National Guard landed in Indiana, which neighbors Illinois.
The reported flight followed a post by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on the US social media company, X, where he shared a photo and wrote: "The elite Texas National Guard. Ever ready. Deploying now."
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago officials filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to block the deployment, arguing that Trump's order to federalise state troops was unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, submitted by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to the federal court in Chicago, described the move as "illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional."
Reacting to Trump's call, Pritzker said he "will not to back down."
"Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?" he wrote on X.
Johnson also voiced his protest on X.
"This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I'm not going anywhere," he vowed.
Insurrection Act
Trump has deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and is in the works to do so in Memphis, Tennessee. He also sent hundreds of US Marines to Los Angeles in June to quell unrest caused by his immigration crackdown.
On Tuesday, he said he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act to expand his domestic deployments of American forces against the wishes of local officials amid a standoff with Democratic-led states and cities.
'"It's been invoked before," Trump said. "If you look at Chicago, Chicago is a great city where there's a lot of crime, and if the governor can't do the job, we'll do the job. It's all very simple."
The law permits the president to deploy active-duty military forces to carry out civilian law enforcement duties during exceptional circumstances.
The last time the 1807 law was invoked was during the 1992 Los Angeles riots that were sparked by the police beating of a Black man.
