NEW YORK — The Trump administration confirmed this past weekend that it intends to deploy military troops in Chicago, following similar efforts in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. According to an ACLU press release, the president has declared crime emergencies to justify these actions, despite steadily falling crime rates in most of the targeted cities.
President Trump has also threatened, against the wishes of state governors, to send troops to Baltimore, San Francisco and New York City.
The president’s power to deploy federal troops to quell domestic criminal activities has been described as unprecedented, controversial, and, as the Chicago mayor argued, illegal.
“President Trump is manufacturing ‘emergencies’ to expand his power and create fear in major American cities,” Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said. “Regardless of whether the president cites false crime statistics, villainizes immigrants, or claims peaceful protest is insurrection, sending armed federal agents and military troops into our communities is unjustified and dangerous.”
The press release noted that these developments come as some National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., are now armed, and that 19 states are preparing to mobilize up to 1,700 additional Guard members to assist the Department of Homeland Security’s drive to detain and deport millions of people.
In response to these plans, Shamsi said, “President Trump’s escalating threats directly undermine our foundational value that the military should not be policing civilians, [which will] create legal jeopardy for servicemembers and federal agents, and put regular people going about their lives at high risk of having their rights violated.”
The statement urged state and local officials to resist federal pressure. “Governors and other state and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect their residents against the president’s repeated attempts to intimidate us,” Shamsi said.
The ACLU concluded that the administration’s reliance on militarized responses, combined with threats of mass deportations, reflects intimidation that could erode constitutional protections and civil liberties nationwide.
