President Donald Trump moved to deploy the National Guard in another city Saturday by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said Border Patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president authorized using the Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” Jackson said.
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said the guard received notice from the Pentagon early in the day. He called the move unnecessary and “a manufactured performance — not a serious effort to protect public safety.”
“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago, but it was not immediately clear when or exactly where they would be deployed.
Meanwhile the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the shooting of the woman on the southwest side of Chicago. It said in a statement that Border Patrol agents on patrol “were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars,” and when they got out of their trapped vehicle, “a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively.”
The woman who was shot was a U.S. citizen and was armed with a semiautomatic weapon, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, noting that the woman was accused in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin last week of doxing agents.
The woman was treated and released in the afternoon, according to Mount Sinai Hospital. No officers were seriously injured, McLaughlin said.
The Chicago Police Department confirmed a shooting in the area but offered few details, saying it responded only to “document the incident” and control traffic.
“CPD is not involved in the incident or its investigation. Federal authorities are investigating this shooting,” it said in a statement, referring questions to federal officials.
The escalation of federal law enforcement follows similar deployments in other parts of the country. Trump sent the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and to Washington, D.C., as part of his law enforcement takeover there. Tennessee National Guard troops are expected to arrive in Memphis to help police.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued to stop the deployment in Los Angeles and won a temporary block in federal court. The Trump administration has appealed that ruling that the use of the guard was illegal, and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has indicated that it believes the government is likely to prevail.
Pritzker criticized the Illinois deployment for pulling the National Guard troops away from their families and regular jobs, saying, “For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control.”
