This past weekend, President Trump authorized the deployment of National Guard to Chicago, following increased presence of, and enforcement activities by, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers since the past summer. The president made this decision after a convening of all U.S. military leadership in Quantico, Virginia last week, where he encouraged the use of certain American cities as testing grounds for the military to address what he called a “war from within.”
Today, the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit, requesting immediate, emergency relief to stop the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
Likewise today, nonviolent protesters and members of the press in Chicago filed another complaint and request for immediate, emergency relief regarding acts of violence by federal officials during peaceful protests at an ICE facility, which plaintiffs claim to have violated their First Amendment rights.
In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Director of Strategic Initiatives Jin Hee Lee issued the following statement:
“In a chilling abuse of power, President Trump has engaged in a brazen misuse of U.S. military resources by deploying the National Guard in certain cities under the pretext of fabricated crime emergencies. What he calls ‘a war from within’ pits U.S. military personnel and federal immigration officers against American residents maliciously targeted by this administration.
“This most recent National Guard deployment continues an authoritarian agenda that will not end with Chicago. The Trump administration takes this extraordinary action against the express wishes of Illinois’ elected Governor, just as it ignored state and local leaders in other jurisdictions who had condemned the dramatic show of force by National Guard and federal law enforcement in their cities. The administration’s deployment of National Guard troops in the Los Angeles area and Washington D.C. have already been challenged as unlawful.”
“President Trump has cultivated an atmosphere of fear and violence that will further endanger vulnerable communities and deeply undermine public safety for everyone. We forcefully condemn these tactics as unlawful, anti-democratic, and un-American.”
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
