Chicago Mayor Limits Police Cooperation with Federal Immigration Agents Amid Tensions
Amid escalating tensions with the Trump administration, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has placed new restrictions on how the city’s police department engages with federal immigration enforcement. This move comes in response to President Trump’s threats to intensify federal immigration operations in the city.
On Saturday, Mayor Johnson, a Democrat, issued an executive order that prevents the Chicago Police Department from working alongside federal agents on civil immigration enforcement activities. The order also restricts collaboration with U.S. military personnel on police patrols.
Johnson criticized President Trump, stating that his actions were beyond “the bounds of the Constitution,” particularly concerning potential deployments of federal law enforcement or the National Guard to Chicago against the preferences of local and state officials.
“We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart,” Johnson stated. “We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents.”
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, President Trump chastised Illinois’ Democratic Governor JB Pritzker and hinted at sending federal forces to Chicago to address crime. “Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME,” Trump wrote. “He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”
Governor Pritzker, in response to Trump’s comments, stated on CBS’s Face the Nation that sending military forces to an American city would be an “attack on the American people by the President of the United States.”
Pritzker also expressed concerns that Trump had other motives beyond crime control, potentially aiming to disrupt the 2026 midterm elections. “He’ll just claim that there’s some problem with an election, and then he’s got troops on the ground that can take control, if in fact he’s allowed to do this,” said Pritzker.
Despite Trump’s association of crime with the potential increase in federal presence in Chicago, the administration is expected to frame the bolstered law enforcement resources as primarily targeting immigration enforcement, according to a report by the Associated Press.
White House “border czar” Tom Homan recently announced a “ramp-up” of immigration enforcement operations in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, focusing on sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “All these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] where we know public safety threats are being released every day into this country — especially in those cities — we’re going to address that,” Homan told reporters.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem stated that more resources would be allocated to ICE operations in Chicago, though specifics were not disclosed. The Trump administration also requested assistance from the Naval Station Great Lakes for logistical support in immigration operations, as reported by the AP.
Under Mayor Johnson’s order, Chicago police officers are required to wear official uniforms and are prohibited from wearing masks to ensure city residents can distinguish them from federal agents. A DHS spokesperson previously told NPR that some immigration agents wear masks for their protection due to rising threats.
Criticism from the White House followed Johnson’s executive order, with spokeswoman Abigail Jackson stating, “If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer.” She emphasized that addressing crime should not be partisan, referencing Mayor Muriel Bowser’s praise for the Trump administration’s crime reduction efforts in Washington D.C.
Mayor Johnson anticipates the immigration crackdown could begin as early as Friday.
This article was originally written by www.npr.org
