After reports that Chicago is 'next' in Trump's militarized crackdown, mayor warns president to respect Constitution

Alice Yin, Chicago Tribune on Jun 17, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday condemned the latest threats from Republican President Donald Trump to target Chicago with federal troops, warning that such a move would be swiftly challenged in the courts amid an ongoing wave of pro-immigrant demonstrations.

Johnson derided the reported comments from a senior Trump official who vowed that “Chicago is next, if they go too far.” The mayor said he does not believe the federal government has that power.

It was the mayor’s latest response to ongoing signs from the White House that it is considering targeting Chicago with a military response after mobilizing the National Guard in Los Angeles.

“It’s just another sort of example of his animus towards working people,” Johnson told reporters at a City Hall news conference. “I think it’s important that the President respects the Constitution. If you’re asking me if this president is going to work with city leaders, it’s clear that he’s not interested in doing that.”

Johnson, a progressive first-term mayor, has been among the Trump administration’s highest-profile domestic targets over the last several months. The most explosive point of contention has been Chicago’s sanctuary policy for immigrants, mirroring similar laws in other blue cities and states that the president’s team continues to blame as an obstacle in his bid to enact the largest deportation operation in American history.

The mayor noted the federal government was not expected to give the city advance notice if it indeed deploys troops in Chicago. He did not elaborate on what the city’s plans would be, beyond announcing the CTA’s plans to disseminate resources from its “Know Your Rights” immigration campaign across more than 400 digital displays and highlighting that much of this next fight would be via legal challenges.

“There’s a great deal of resistance in this city around a host of things with the Trump administration. … Whether it’s in the courts or whether it’s in the streets or it’s with public policy, we’re going to continue to defend and stand up for working people,” Johnson said. “As far as what this administration has been allowed to get away with, we have put forth lawsuits, which we’ve seen some success there.”

Johnson’s Corporation Counsel, Mary Richardson-Lowry, added “we think it is a violation of the Constitution to deploy troops or National Guard, absent authority under the Constitution” that is reserved by the governor, not the federal government.

Richardson-Lowry also addressed reporting from the Tribune last week that the city did comply with one subpoena from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has subpoenaed two city departments: the clerk over its municipal ID program CityKey, and Streets and Sanitation over employment eligibility forms. The city provided some documents in the latter summons, a spokesperson for Johnson’s Law Department said on Friday.

On Tuesday, Richardson-Lowry stressed that none of those records contained personal information.

“There was another administrative warrant category for Streets and San, where under federal law we had an obligation to at least provide a listing, and that information was provided without the kind of detail,” Richardson-Lowry said.

The city didn’t hand over any documents with the other ICE subpoena, for CityKey records, the Johnson administration has said. On Friday evening, a week after the Tribune reported that ICE subpoenaed the clerk’s office for personal information of applicants to the ID program that is often used by noncitizens, the city clerk took down the online application for CityKey.

During the first Trump administration, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot also rebuked threats by the federal government to deploy the military in the face of civil unrest over the police murder of George Floyd. Though there was still some federal troop presence in the city, it paled in comparison to the crackdown Trump was teasing then — and enacting in Los Angeles now, with thousands of federal National Guard and Marine troops deployed there.

Conservatives have long desired use of the National Guard to quell violence in liberal-leaning cities such as Chicago, with Trump leading the rhetoric. He posted to Truth Social on Sunday, “We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”

A hearing on California’s lawsuit seeking to compel the Trump administration to return control of the National Guard to the state was scheduled Tuesday in a federal appeals court.

_____