Oct. 6 (UPI) — Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s federal troop deployment to the state’s most populated metropolis as legal action looms in other states over the same issue.
The Illinois lawsuit filed Monday seeks to block federal deployment of National Guard troops and cited legal principles that limit presidential authority to involve American combat troops on U.S. soil.
“Illinois is taking the Trump Administration to court for their unlawful and unconstitutional deployment of military troops to our state,” Gov. JB Pritzker said on social media as he thanked state Attorney General Kwame Raoul for “helping defend the rule of law.”
In the complaint, the state named as defendants U.S. President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the Illinois attorney general wrote in a court filing.
The state’s lawsuit expressed that the order to federalize troops “represents the exact type of intrusion on State power that is at the heart of the Tenth Amendment” of the U.S. Constitution.
The complaint further pointed to widening issues of “economic harm” as the president’s unwanted federalization of American cities persists, and a noted lag in local tourism and other activity hurting state tax revenue.
On Saturday, Pritzker said the Trump administration issued him “an ultimatum” to “call up your troops, or we will.”
The governor said it was “absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker wrote on Bluesky.
Illinois’ legal complaint stated that Trump’s deployment of federalized U.S. National Guard troops, including the rounding up of out-of-state units to deploy into other states, “infringes on Illinois’s sovereignty and right to self-governance.” It added that it will “cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police.”
Pritzker called the president’s action an “invasion” and urged U.S. citizens on Sunday to speak up and utilize smartphones in order to record military acts.
On Sunday, a legal memorandum filed by the U.S. Department of Defense revealed 400 troops from Texas were being sent to Portland, Chicago and other cities “where needed”.
“It started with federal agents … and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops,” said the two-term Democratic governor and rumored 2028 presidential candidate.
U.S. troops have been deployed by Trump in the nation’s capital and Los Angeles where legal challenges are pending as the administration seeks to further expand military presence in other American cities over inflated allegations of high crime.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor, Monday’s lawsuit by Illinois stated.