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CHICAGO (WGN) — An urgent warning from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker suggests that an already tense situation with federal agents patrolling downtown Chicago could escalate.
The governor says the Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to the Department of War requesting 100 active-duty troops be deployed across Chicago.
Pritzker shared the update during a briefing on Monday afternoon. He was joined by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the Chair of the Illinois Legislative Caucus, the president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and many other community leaders.
The briefing was in response to federal immigration enforcement’s show of force over the weekend.
Border Patrol agents wearing tactical gear and carrying long guns roamed downtown streets and traveled on boats in the Chicago River. The agents also reportedly took dozens of people into custody.
The commander of the border force, Gregory Bovino, joined agents as they marched downtown. Bovino has vowed to make Chicago a safer place.
He reportedly told the Chicago Sun-Times that the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is making arrests based on how people look. Although that practice has been widely condemned, the U.S. Supreme Court has said federal agents could continue stopping people based on race and language. Immigration rights activists have gone on record, calling the act terrifying.
In Broadview, its ICE detention facility has become the frontline of the Chicago area crackdown and protest.
Demonstrators and ICE have clashed. Broadview police also opened an investigation into an incident on Sunday involving a Channel 2 reporter. A projectile was allegedly fired at the reporter’s vehicle while she was alone, and the streets were calm, according to the local CBS affiliate.
Raoul also announced that the state would sue over the Trump administration’s diversion of $100 million in public safety and disaster relief funds from Illinois and other states.
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Tahman Bradley
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