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Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday to protect federal personnel and property amid anti-immigration protests, the Pentagon confirmed.
A Pentagon official said 200 guardsmen were mobilized for an initial 60-day period.
Troops arrived in Illinois “in support of the Federal Protection Mission to protect federal functions, personnel, and property,” according to a Pentagon statement.
PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS
About a dozen people have been arrested near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, where anti-immigration crowds have been gathering for days.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Saturday that additional special operations personnel would be deployed to Illinois after federal agents were rammed and boxed in by 10 cars.
PRITZKER SAYS TRUMP ORDERING 400 MEMBERS OF THE TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD TO ILLINOIS, OREGON AND OTHER LOCATIONS
Fox News cameras captured footage Tuesday afternoon outside the Army Reserve Training Center in Elwood, just south of Joliet, showing several National Guard troops on site.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted to X, noting service members are “on the ground and ready to go.”
“They are putting America first by ensuring that the federal government can safely enforce federal law,” Abbott wrote.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reiterated on Tuesday he believes the deployment is “illegal, unconstitutional, dangerous and wrong.”
In an executive order signed Monday, Johnson created “ICE-free zones,” prohibiting federal immigration agents from using city-owned property for immigration enforcement operations.
“The Trump administration must end the war on Chicago,” Johnson said during a news conference Monday. “The Trump administration must end this war against Americans. The Trump administration must end its attempt to dismantle our democracy.”
HUNDREDS OF FEDERAL AGENTS IN CHICAGO CARRY OUT OPERATION TARGETING SUSPECTED TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBERS
The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA), a Chicago-based activist group, planned an emergency protest in downtown Chicago set for Wednesday afternoon.
Hatem Abudayyeh, National Chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and a spokesperson for CATA, told Fox News Digital the group “stand[s] united in fighting back against [President Donald] Trump’s racist and white supremacist attacks on our communities.”
“The Guard has been sent to join ICE in wreaking havoc and terrorizing our neighborhoods, because Chicagoans don’t back down from bullies like Trump,” Abudayyeh wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our communities here—especially Mexicanos, Centroamericanos, and Black people—are organizing, resisting, and mobilizing in massive numbers for protests, community education and Know Your Rights presentations, and rapid response teams (led by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights [ICIRR]) that defend our immigrant neighbors directly from ICE. We will continue to resist together, unified across race and class and nationality, and they will never break us down!”
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Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
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