JD Vance says DC National Guard deployments won’t be forever
JD Vance tells USA TODAY National Guard presence in cities will not be indefinite.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is taking a defiant stance against President Donald Trump’s promise to deploy the National Guard to the nation’s third-largest city.
Johnson on Aug. 30 signed an executive order he said lays out “how we can stand up against this tyranny.”
Chicago police will not help the National Guard with immigration enforcement or related activities such as conducting traffic stops and manning checkpoints, according to the order.
“This is about making a very clear distinction between what our law enforcement engages in versus what federal agents engage in,” Johnson said at a news conference. “This president is not going to come in and deputize our police department.”
Chicagoans expect the White House to bring its immigration crackdown to the city sometime after Labor Day.
Trump went after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Aug. 30, writing on social media that Pritzker is “CRAZY” if he thinks he doesn’t need Trump’s help fighting crime.
“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
Pritzker has warned Chicagoans to expect military checkpoints with “unidentified officers in masks while taking their kids to school.” But he asked protesters to refrain from giving federal troops reason to engage.
Nearly 2,300 armed National Guard troops are currently in Washington, DC, after Trump declared a public crime emergency in the nation’s capital on Aug. 11, even as data from Washington police show violent crime was down 26% from last year.
Violent crime rates are also falling in Chicago, according to police department data.
Trump has also mentioned Baltimore, New York City, Los Angeles and Oakland, California ‒ each cities with Democratic mayors in states led by Democratic governors ‒ as potential federal targets.
Johnson said his executive order ensures that Chicagoans know their rights and every city agency knows what it’s supposed to do to protect those rights.
Calling Trump “the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country,” Johnson asserted: “I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
