Trump eyes National Guard deployment in Chicago amid crime and immigration crackdown

The Trump administration is considering sending thousands of National Guard troops to Chicago as part of an expanded “law and order” drive targeting crime and immigration, according to reports in US media.

_The Washington Pos_t said the Pentagon had been sketching out plans for weeks that could mobilise several thousand Guard members to the nation’s third-largest city as early as September. Officials quoted by the paper stressed the deliberations remained preliminary.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to confirm the reports. “We won’t speculate on further operations,” one defence official said, adding that the department “is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel.”

Echoes of past deployments

The possible move comes after Donald Trump deployed 800 Guard troops in Washington, DC earlier this month, with officials indicating that personnel there would soon be carrying weapons. On Friday, Trump told reporters that Chicago and New York would be “next”, promising: “We’re going to make our cities very, very safe.”

The plans would follow a controversial operation in Los Angeles in June, when Trump ordered 4,000 California National Guard members and 700 active-duty Marines into the city over state objections, according to CNN. They would also dovetail with an expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Pushback from local leaders

Illinois governor JB Pritzker and Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, strongly rejected the idea. “Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to paint their party as one of ‘law and order’. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Pritzker wrote on X, adding in a separate interview that “public safety is under attack by the Trump administration.”

Johnson said his administration had received no formal communication about any military deployment, calling such action “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”

Crime trends

Chicago recorded 573 homicides in 2024, police data show. This is an 8 per cent fall compared with the year before. Despite the decline, the city continues to be a political flashpoint, frequently cited by Trump and Republicans as evidence of Democratic failures on crime.