Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday accused the Trump administration of staging a “military-style invasion” of Chicago, striking fear into residents with “thug” tactics by immigration agents and even deploying black falcon helicopters to attack an apartment building.
Pritzker criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown targeting Chicago just hours after the state and city of Chicago filed a lawsuit seeking to block federalization and the deployment of the National Guard.
“Let me be clear, Donald Trump is using our service members as political props and pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said during a news conference.
To support his point, Pritzker played a video of an ice raid conducted last week at an apartment complex in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, according to federal authorities with high-definition cameras for social media purposes. He said he was the same Video Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security. Kristi Noem posted on social media on Saturday.
“They brought in military Black Hawk helicopters and over 100 officers in full tactical gear,” Pritzker said.
He added: “At night and apparently for the cameras, armed federal agents emerged from Black Hawk helicopters, raping the roof of that apartment building.”
The governor alleged that the Trump administration is following a playbook to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it look like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters.”
Tear gas fills the air after it was used by federal law enforcement officers who were being confronted by community members and activists for reportedly shooting a woman in the Brighton Park neighborhood on October 4, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
“Why? To create the pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act so he can send military troops into our city,” Pritzker said.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a press release Monday, claiming to debunk a “Smorgasbord of Lies” with the governor.
“Our message to JB Pritzker: Get out of your mansion and see Chicago,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement. “If JB Pritzker really walked the streets of his own city, he would see domestic terrorists and violent rioters attacking police officers and the scourge of violent crime as a direct result of his own policies.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he didn’t see the need to use the Insurrection Act yet, but “if I had to enact it, I would, if people were being killed and the courts were holding us, or the governors or the mayors were holding us.”
White House Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller on Monday cited two incidents over the weekend in which protesters rammed immigration agents’ vehicles in Chicago, leading to the shooting of a protester, who federal authorities assumed was driving one of the vehicles and was armed.
“The fight going on right now is between the lawful exercise of power by the American people through a duly elected government versus the unlawful exercise of street violence in the form of domestic terrorism,” Miller told White House reporters.
Miller added: “The clearest example of this is when you have ICE officers, who carry out the statutes and laws of the United States to arrest and remove illegal aliens, who are being subjected to violent attacks in the conduct of their official duties. That is an example of illegitimate violence, illegitimate power in the form of domestic terrorism that is accustomed to the conduct of their official duties.”
In their lawsuit filed Monday morning, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago asked a judge to block the Trump administration’s deployment of military troops to Chicago.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen from favor with a president,” the complaint said.
The fundamental principle that separates the military from domestic issues is “endangered” as President Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard to cities across the country, attorneys for Illinois and Chicago wrote in a lawsuit.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to issue an order blocking any state’s National Guard from being federalized and deployed to Illinois, arguing that the state is being attacked because its “leadership has fallen from favor with a president.”
“There is no insurrection in Illinois. There is no rebellion in Illinois. The federal government can enforce federal law in Illinois. The manufactured nature of the crisis is clear,” according to the 69-page complaint.
Lawyers for Illinois and Chicago argue that Trump has not justified taking over the National Guard based on federal law, which allows for federalization in response to a rebellion or invasion, and violates the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement.
Protesters confront police during a protest outside an immigration detention and processing center on October 3, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
“Defendants’ unlawful deployment of the Illinois National Guard, over the state’s objection, is similar to the course of unlawful conduct they have taken against other disadvantaged states and cities,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit cites Trump’s social media posts about sending militarized police to Chicago, including a post in which he said, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” and his recent comments about using Democratic-led cities “as training grounds for our military.”
The lawsuit comes after a federal judge blocked Trump from sending National Guard troops to Oregon, where protesters have gathered in a one-block area surrounding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
In the ruling issued Saturday, U.S. District Judge Karin Immingut granted a temporary restraining order sought by California and Oregon.
“This country has a long-standing and fundamental tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civilian affairs,” Immingut wrote.
“This historic tradition boils down to a simple proposition: This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” the judge said.
ImmerGut, whom Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon during his first term, issued the ruling a day after Trump authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago to protect federal officers and federal assets in the city.
Trump has described both Portland and Chicago as being overtaken by violence and unrest. He has characterized both cities as “war zones.”
But the governors of Oregon and Chicago have responded that Trump has greatly exaggerated the violence in those cities to justify his actions.
A federal law enforcement agent confronts protesters from the turret of an armored vehicle during a protest outside an immigration detention and processing center on October 3, 2025, in Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Amid rising tensions in Chicago over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Trump administration customs agents and border patrol Saturday shot and wounded a woman they alleged was part of a convoy of protesters that rammed their vehicles during an “ambush.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Border Patrol agents opened fire on the woman in self-defense, claiming she was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and was driving one of three vehicles that “cornered” and rammed CBP agents’ vehicles.
In a second incident in Chicago on Saturday, a man was detained after he allegedly rammed a CBP vehicle in an attempt to run it off the road, according to DHS.
Trump ignited a war of words with the leaders of Illinois and Chicago in early September when he suggested sending National Guard troops to the Windy City, saying in a social media post, “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the War Department.”
In the post, Trump added, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” a nod to the oft-quoted line “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” from the war movie “Apocalypse Now.”
Trump initially insisted he was waiting for Chicago officials to ask for help from the federal government before sending in the National Guard.
Federal law enforcement officers stand guard as they confront community members and activists for reportedly shooting a woman in the Brighton Park neighborhood on October 4, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Pritzker made clear at a September news conference that he would not make such a request, telling reporters: “When do we become a country where it is OK for the president of the United States to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for something, especially something we don’t want?”
On Monday morning, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order creating “ice-free zones” in the city.
The mayor’s order prohibits federal immigration agents from using city-owned property in their immigration enforcement. The order also invites local business owners and community organizations to join the city’s effort to “safeguard our communities, while advancing measures to control reckless behavior by federal immigration agents.”
“With this executive order, Chicago stands firm in protecting the constitutional rights of our residents and immigrant communities and defending our democracy,” Johnson said in a statement.
“We will not tolerate ICE agents violating the constitutional rights of our residents nor will we allow the federal government to ignore our local authority. ICE agents are detaining elected officials, protesters, children, and Chicago police officers, and abusing Chicago residents,” Johnson said. “We will not defend that in our city.”
Miller said Johnson’s executive order is the latest example of Democratic politicians pushing back against attacks on federal agents.
“Not only has Chicago’s mayor failed to condemn violent and obstructive acts against ICE and law enforcement, but after two coordinated assassination attempts on ICE officers via vehicle-packing attacks, he issued a No Go zone for ICE officers,” Miller said.
