Aug. 31 (UPI) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday confirmed the Trump administration plans to increase immigration resources in Chicago amid a planned federal crackdown on crime in the city.
In an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be expanding operations in Chicago to “go after the worst of the worst in the country, like President [Donald] Trump has told us to do.”
She said the agency would be “focusing on those that are perpetuating murder and rape and trafficking of drugs and humans across our country, knowing that every single citizen deserves to be safe.”
Noem’s comments come after weeks of Trump leveraging federal resources — namely the National Guard — to target crime in cities he deems unsafe. He deployed troops to Washington, D.C., in August to crack down on crime, which he described as “out of control.”
Speaking Aug. 11 about the deployment, Trump called out other cities with high crime, including Chicago, Baltimore, Oakland, Calif., and New York City. He followed that up Saturday with a Truth Social post calling Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “weak and pathetic,” saying he should straighten out crime or “we’re coming.”
In response to Trump’s threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order seeking to avoid militarization in the city. The order demands that Trump end “his threats to deploy the National Guard” to Chicago.
“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Johnson said during a signing ceremony. “I would’ve preferred to work more collaboratively to pass legislation … but unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time. We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some kind of militarized activity by the federal government.”
In an appearance on Face the Nation, Pritzker said no one in the Trump administration has reach out to him or any other officials in Chicago about a possible deployment of National Guard troops to the city, which he described as “an invasion.” He said federal agencies should coordinate with local law enforcement.
“But they don’t want to do that either, and I must say, it’s disruptive, it’s dangerous,” Pritzker said. “It tends to inflame passions on the ground when they don’t let us know what their plans are, and when we can’t coordinate with them.”
He said if Trump does send National Guard troops to Chicago, he’ll take it to the courts.
“Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency,” he said. “There is not.”