Illinois Sues Trump Administration Over Deployment of National Guard Troops to Chicago

According to Rokna, citing The Associated Press, Democratic officials in Illinois and its capital, Chicago, lodged the complaint on Monday in an effort to block the federal government from sending hundreds of National Guard troops into the state. The move came after President Trump announced plans to deploy 700 National Guard soldiers to Chicago.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul accused Trump of using military forces to punish his political opponents. The lawsuit was filed just one day after a federal judge ruled that the deployment of federal agents in Portland had been unlawful.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, told CNN that Republicans were attempting to fabricate a state of war in order to justify deploying additional federal troops.

The White House, however, defended the decision, claiming that federal personnel were necessary to protect government employees amid violent unrest.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to lawlessness.”

Nevertheless, Illinois officials argue that the deployment violates the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that severely restricts the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. The state also contends that Trump’s decision breaches the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which safeguards the rights of individual states.

The complaint further alleges that the federal government is acting under a “weak and unjustified pretext” — claiming the need to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in suburban Chicago — as a cover for political intervention.

Local authorities have warned that Trump’s provocative and unilateral actions not only fail to enhance public safety in the Chicago area but also threaten stability and security by fueling public outrage.