Illinois service members push back on calls for National Guard in Chicago
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Members of the National Guard carrying sidearms patrol the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo: Mehmet Eser/ Middle East Images via AFP via Getty Images
Some active and veteran U.S. service members in Illinois are voicing their opposition to President Trump's plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
The big picture: National Guard members based in Washington, D.C. the past few weeks have been seen picking up trash and taking photos with tourists, but the president attributes a decline in violent crime to their presence.
Between the lines: D.C. National Guard members are under the president's control, which is not the case in Illinois.
Driving the news: Trump told reporters Tuesday that it's a matter of when, not if, he sends the National Guard to Chicago.
- Trump's remarks came on the same day a federal judge ruled that his deployment of troops for law enforcement to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act.
In response, Gov. JB Pritzker said Trump has started "positioning armed federal agents and staging military vehicles on federal property, such as the Great Lakes Naval base."
- "We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois," Pritzker added.
Yes, but: "No units have been activated and we do not have an order or preparatory command for any mission," deputy director of public affairs for Illinois National Guard William Grove tells Axios.
Zoom in: Illinois Veterans for Change, a group that works to elect Democratic veterans, and Common Defense, a grassroots organization advocating for progressive legislation, held a press conference last week with current duty members and veterans to express their opposition to federal troops in Chicago.
What they're saying: "The National Guard has a sacred mission. We are part of the communities that we serve. We are the neighbors who show up when the flood hits, when the storms tear through the towns and when our country is in crisis," Illinois National Guard member Demi Palecek said.
- "It is patently illegal and un-American to have them patrolling U.S. streets for a manufactured publicity stunt," U.S. Army Judge Advocate Dan Tully said, calling deployment a "reckless misuse of taxpayer dollars."
Zoom out: Soldiers stationed in D.C. have elicited a variety of responses from residents and tourists traversing through the city, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, with one passerby calling them "Trump's goons," but another commuter defending the troops who were being heckled.
The other side: MAGA supporters and Republican Commissioner Sean Morrison say they'd welcome the National Guard in Chicago, pointing to last weekend's gun violence as a reason for intervention.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comments from Gov. JB Pritzker.