President Trump is ramping up his threats to send the National Guard into cities across the U.S., even after a federal judge ruled against his use of troops in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco found that Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to L.A. in June — to respond to protests against immigration raids — violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement purposes.
The ruling, which the Trump administration can appeal, only applies in California.
And it has not stopped Trump from discussing the potential deployment of troops into Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans for public safety purposes — despite data showing crime is down in those cities and considerable opposition from elected officials there.
"Well, we're going in — I didn't say when, we're going in," Trump said of Chicago at a Tuesday press conference. "This isn't a political thing, I have an obligation."
A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly has since confirmed to NPR that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested assistance from the Pentagon for ICE enforcement and removal operations in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The request is for logistical help and use of facilities at Naval Station Great Lakes, a large training facility about 30 miles north of the city.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and vocal Trump critic, said in a statement that "none of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer."
"For Trump, it's about testing his power and producing a political drama to cover up his corruption," Pritzker said. "We are ready to fight troop deployments in court and we will do everything possible to ensure that agents operating inside the confines of this state do so in a legal and ethical manner."
Sending in ICE agents, who handle immigration enforcement, is different from deploying National Guard troops for crime, as Trump did in Washington, D.C., last month — despite the fact that crime there has been on the decline after a spike in 2023. He has the authority to do so because the Home Rule Act gives him command of D.C.'s National Guard.
Trump has touted that operation as a success, declaring D.C. a "crime free zone" this week. While hundreds of people have been arrested since Aug. 7 — many for immigration-related offenses — data from the Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Police Union shows that violent crime since the deployment is down, not gone altogether.
The deployment has been unpopular in the overwhelmingly blue city: D.C.'s attorney general sued the Trump administration over the National Guard deployment on Thursday, alleging it is illegally using the military for local law enforcement purposes.
"Our nation was founded on the fundamental principles of freedom and self-governance that are [at] stake in this case," D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote on X. "No city in America should be subject to involuntary military occupation."
While the Republican governor of Louisiana has welcomed Trump's talk of sending National Guard troops to New Orleans, the Democratic governors of Illinois and Maryland are vehemently opposed. And since governors control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states, any such move by Trump would likely trigger further legal challenges in Democratic-led states.
Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck told Morning Edition that Trump could try to invoke rarely-used statutes like the Insurrection Act to send in troops without a governor's consent, or seek to federalize the National Guard under Title 10, as he did in California.
"But I think what he's really trying to get at is can he actually have his cake and eat it, too? Can he send in troops without using that controversial statute and without the governor's consent?" Vladeck added. "That's really the mess that we're seeing this week."
He also said Trump could potentially attempt to deploy National Guard troops from red states to those that don't want them.
Pritzker said earlier this week that he believes Trump is preparing to send members of the Texas National Guard, in addition to "armed military personnel," to Chicago — which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has denied.
Vladeck said such a deployment would put the U.S. in "uncharted territory."
"If he carries through on his threat to send un-federalized National Guard troops from one state into another without that state's consent, there will definitely be litigation," Vladeck added. "It will almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court. And that's a good thing, because the alternative is a face-to-face confrontation."
Generally, the National Guard has not been used in policing — troops have been seen performing administrative duties at ICE facilities in Los Angeles and patrolling federal property and picking up trash in D.C.
Here's where things stand in the meantime.
Chicago
While Trump's critiques of Chicago have centered on violent crime, administration officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House "border czar" Tom Homan have so far talked about surging law enforcement to the city for the specific purposes of immigration enforcement.
Pritzker said on Tuesday that Trump will send unidentified agents in unmarked vehicles to raid Latino communities, likely timed to coincide with celebrations of Mexican Independence Day, which is Sept. 16.
Organizers of a parade in the nearby city of Waukegan have postponed their event due to safety concerns, while a Saturday parade in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood will have volunteers stationed along the route with whistles and radios as a precaution.
Pritzker also said that Trump will deploy the National Guard into the city, "and will fabricate any occurrence as rationale to do so." Trump appeared to acknowledge on Tuesday that it would be much easier for him to send troops to Chicago with the governor's consent.
"I would love to have Governor Pritzker call me — I'd gain respect for him — and say, 'We do have a problem and we'd love you to send in the troops,' because you know what, the people, they have to be protected," he said, though later concluded, "we're going to do it anyway."
Pritzker responded by calling Trump's suggestion "an insult to any and every citizen."
"When did we become a country where it's OK for the U.S. president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything, especially something we don't want?" Pritzker told reporters.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, also a Democrat, has blasted the threat of a National Guard deployment as "illegal and costly," saying that crime is down in the city and that if Trump really wanted to fight it, he wouldn't be cutting millions in federal funding for violence prevention efforts.
Last week, as Trump threatened to ramp up immigration enforcement operations in the city, Johnson signed an executive order barring the police department from collaborating with federal officers conducting civil immigration enforcement operations, and with U.S. military personnel on police patrols.
The order also requires Chicago Police Department officers to wear official police uniforms, with face masks prohibited, so that city residents can tell them apart from federal officers. The White House lambasted the order, with spokesperson Abigail Jackson saying Democrats should spend more time tackling crime in their cities "instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President."
Baltimore
Trump also repeated his threat of sending National Guard troops to Baltimore, which he called "one of the most unsafe places anywhere in the world."
"We have the right to do it, because I have an obligation to protect this country and that includes Baltimore," he said on Tuesday. Residents flocked to the Baltimore City Hall in protest the next day.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, has repeatedly slammed Trump's talk of sending troops to his city.
Scott said last month that homicides are down 28% this year — to a record low — and police data shows that violent crime is down nearly 18% from this time last year. The city reported just seven homicides in August, the fewest in that month in at least five decades.
Speaking to member station WYPR on Thursday, Scott criticized the potential deployments as a political tactic — questioning why Trump didn't do it in his first term when crime rates were higher — and said the city has coordinated with state officials on "extensive planning" for how to respond to one.
"Depending on what happens, when it happens, if it happens, we've looked at what kind of legal actions we could take," he said. "We'll just be prepared to do whatever we need to do in that moment."
New Orleans
Trump has also publicly weighed whether to send troops to a city in a more welcoming red state, like Louisiana.
"So we're making a determination now, do we go to Chicago, or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite tough, quite bad," he said Wednesday.
Landry welcomed the offer in a tweet, writing, "We will take President [Trump's] help from New Orleans to Shreveport!"
But Democrats in the blue city were quick to push back.
Helena Moreno, vice president of the New Orleans City Council, said in a statement that the city has seen an "unprecedented reduction in crime and violence." She accused Trump of using "scare tactics … ultimately leading to the misuse of public funds and resources to attempt to score political points."
"We cannot allow this and I will fight to prevent any federal takeover of New Orleans," she added.
The City of New Orleans and New Orleans Police Department said in a joint statement that their collaboration with federal partners, including Louisiana State Police, has been "instrumental in our ongoing success at reducing crime."
Preliminary police data released at the end of August shows a 20% drop in overall crime since last August.
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat whose district includes New Orleans, sent a letter to Trump on Thursday urging him to reconsider his approach. "Militarizing the streets of New Orleans is not the solution for our public safety. Period," the lawmaker wrote.
Carter stressed that the Louisiana National Guard shouldn't be diverted from disaster response efforts during Atlantic hurricane season.
And he said if the Trump administration does want to support New Orleans, he is ready to work with it on initiatives like securing federal funding to recruit and better train police officers and repairing infrastructure at Orleans Parish Prison, from which 10 inmates escaped through a hole in the wall in May.
"Most importantly, it means restoring investments in the very programs your Administration has proposed cutting — programs that address the root causes of crime: systemic poverty, economic inequality, and lack of opportunity," Carter wrote. "New Orleans needs resources, not political stunts."
NPR's Quil Lawrence contributed reporting.
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