By: Ashmar Mandou
The Supreme Court last Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s plans to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois due to the heightened objections of local officials. “This is an important step in curbing the Trump Administration’s consistent abuse of power and slowing Trump’s march toward authoritarianism,” said Governor JB Pritzker, in a statement on Tuesday. The court in an unsigned order rejected an emergency request made by the administration, which stated the National Guard were needed to protect federal agents involved in immigration enforcement in the Chicago area. The court order said that Trump could only call up the military where they could “legally execute the laws” and that power is limited under another law called the Posse Comitatus Act. Local officials shared their thoughts regarding the Supreme Court’s decision to media this week.
“Our members and families in Chicago and across Illinois have spent far too long living under the weight of a federal militarized presence that’s done little to address the real issues in our neighborhoods or the chronic underinvestment in our public schools. Instead of working with communities to tackle the root causes of injustice, this presidential administration has focused on division, using our nation’s military — including young people who were once public school students themselves — to do its dirty work.” –Chicago Teachers Union
“This ruling is a critical blow to an administration that has repeatedly violated the law to target our most vulnerable. This was more than an overstep; using the military to carry out a campaign of intimidation against our own people was a terrifying and blatant abuse of power. We need to continue standing together to protect the dignity and safety of our communities and ensure that no family in Chicago has to live under the threat of being torn apart by an aggressive, unchecked deportation machine.” –Independent Candidate for Illinois 4th Congressional District Mayra Macías
“We welcome the Supreme Court’s ruling to block the deployment of National Guard personnel to the streets of Chicago, rebuking President Trump’s attempts to militarize and demonize our city. I’ve maintained that these threats are unconstitutional from the very beginning. I am encouraged that the Supreme Court shares this view.” –Mayor Brandon Johnson
“Nearly 250 years ago, the framers of our nation’s Constitution carefully divided responsibility over the country’s militia, today’s U.S. National Guard, between the federal government and the states – believing it impossible that a president would use one state’s militia against another state. The extremely limited circumstances under which the federal government can call up the militia over a state’s objection do not exist in Illinois, and I am pleased that the streets of Illinois will remain free of armed National Guard members as our litigation continues in the courts.” –Attorney General Kwame Raoul
