The ongoing battle between the Trump administration and Democrat-led cities intensified this weekend, with the White House announcing authorization for hundreds of National Guard members to be sent to Chicago and a federal judge in Oregon hitting pause on the president’s plan to deploy federal troops in Portland.
Those developments came against the backdrop of continuing protests in Chicago and Portland against federal law enforcement carrying out President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement agenda.
Trump and his administration have framed demonstrations in the two cities as “violent protests” carried out by “domestic terrorists,” arguing that military deployments are necessary to protect federal immigration personnel and property – despite state and city leaders’ insistence that the protests have been largely peaceful and any violence has been easily dealt with by local law enforcement.
Tensions spiked in Chicago Saturday after US Customs and Border Protection agents fired “defensive shots” at a woman who the Department of Homeland Security said rammed her car into a federal law enforcement vehicle. DHS said the woman is in FBI custody after being discharged from the hospital, and she and another person are now facing federal criminal charges in connection with the incident.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused Trump’s administration of escalating tensions and provoking people to react.
“He’s saying that, you know, Chicago is a war zone. None of that is true. They’re just making this up,” Pritzker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They fire tear gas and smoke grenades, and they make it look like it’s a war zone, and they, you know, get people on the ground are, frankly, incited to want to do something about it, appropriately.”
