Governor J.B. Pritzker on Monday, August 25, stood before a scenic backdrop of the Chicago River and city skyline to deliver a strong rebuke to President Donald Trump’s recent threat to send the national guard chicago to Chicago.
Flanked by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, faith leaders, community violence prevention advocates, and law enforcement officials, Pritzker called the remarks reckless and counterproductive to the progress the city and state have made in curbing violent crime.
If Trump and the military come to Chicago, Pritzker promised there will be more pushback, with Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul promising to take Trump to court.
“It is illegal, unconstitutional and un-American to send troops into an American city the way he wants to fight crime,” said Pritzker. “There is literally a law on the books that says he’s not allowed to do that. We are going to stand against that. We are going to make sure he’s held accountable for that. There is no emergency in the city of Chicago,” said Pritzker.
Raoul, who said he works in partnership with federal, state and city partners to reduce crime, will also sue Trump and his administration if troops are sent to Chicago under the pretext of reducing crime.
Raoul added, “Deploying military personnel who are not trained in civilian law enforcement against American citizens does not promote public safety in our cities.” He said Trump’s plan is a “dangerous step towards authoritarianism that puts our communities at risk.”
Having already filed more than three dozen lawsuits against the overreach of the Trump administration and willing to do it again, Raoul said what Trump is doing is “immoral and dangerous, and we will use every legal tool to fight any unlawful deployment of the military against our American citizens,” in Chicago and Illinois.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said over the past two years, Chicago has seen a significant reduction in crime and violence, including last year’s 30 percent decline in homicides, and 35 percent reduction in robberies, reporting a 76 percent clearance rate in one category, the highest in a decade and noting “We have had the safest April since 1962.”
He said Chicago is not in the top 25 of the most dangerous cities in the U.S.
“We are being targeted because of what and who we represent.” Johnson said, “We believe in investing in people. We believe in standing up for the most vulnerable among us. We believe the solution to homelessness is not the National Guard but rather affordable housing….
“Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars for publicity stunts to invoke chaos and terror, the federal government should spend that money on proven solutions to crime and violence reduction,” said Johnson.
“We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence. We’ve already tried that, and we ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence,” Johnson said.
The mayor said we have moved past the “addictions of jails and incarceration in this country” to a societal state he labeled “racist, immoral, unholy, and it is not the way to drive violence down.”
Mayor Johnson called for more federal resources to further improve safety in Chicago, but he made it clear that “You don’t reduce crime by bringing in the military. Unsolicited, unwarranted military takeover is not needed.”
Johnson’s message to Trump is to “listen to what our people are actually calling for, investments and resources. This stunt that this president is attempting to execute is not real. It doesn’t help drive us towards a safer and more affordable big city.”
Among Mayor Johnson’s demands from the Trump administration is one to release the $800 million for violence prevention funds that he appropriated in April. “We are calling for more resources to stop the endless flow of guns into our city and for transformational investments into affordable housing.”
Proud to stand with the multi-layered coalition, the city’s top official said, “We will defend our democracy. We will protect our humanity. We will stand up for the interests of working people.”
Father Michael Pfleger is waiting in the wings, also ready to do battle with Trump.
“Chicago is not in a state of emergency.” he said. Rejecting Trump’s federalizing the National Guard, pitting them against Chicagoans is not what Chicago or Illinois need because they will only bring “fear, chaos and disturb the progress we are presently making to decrease violence,” said Pfleger. “The state of emergency is in America, not Chicago.”
Pfleger’s message to Trump is, “Before you dare speak about any violence in Chicago, look in your mirror and address the violence coming from the White House, the violence of cutting SNAP, cutting $2.4 million in food access putting about 360,000 Illinoisians at risk by taking food off their table.
“Address the violence of cutting Medicare and Medicaid by cutting $500 million, reducing access to doctors and increasing the closure of hospitals and nursing home facilities throughout the state of Illinois,” commented Pfleger.
He said this situation will put some Americans in a life-or-death situation due to cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Pfleger said if Trump wants to fight for safety, then he needs to restore the $158 million he cut from the violence prevention programs in Illinois and $800 million anti-violence grant nationwide.
Pfleger also challenged Trump to address the violence of refusing to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, refusing to have universal background checks and Red Flag laws and “making America the gun capital of the world.”
He challenged Trump to “stop the sale of gun flow into Illinois from your Republican state of Indiana. Rather than exploit our own men and women in uniform for your own political theater, look into the mirror and address the acts of violence that you have ordered from your golden Oval Office creating violence and chaos throughout this country.”
Pfleger told Trump to, “take the wasted money by sending in the National Guard and the wasted money used on threatening commercials on your Homeland Security Secretary and use it on real violence prevention programs that will bring peace. The only one who has to be concerned about violence is you, Mr. President. Send your guards to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Pfleger.
Both Congressmen Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth promised to resist Trump’s deployment of troops to Chicago. Duckworth, a veteran, is offended that Trump whom she said is a five-time draft dodger, is using the military for his personal agenda.
“Forcing the military uninvited into “Chicago to intimidate Americans in their own neighborhoods does not make our nation stronger. It distracts service members from executing their core mission of keeping America safe from the real adversaries who wish to do us harm,” said Duckworth.
She said Trump’s move comes “straight out of the authoritarian playbook” and will weaken our national security. Duckworth said Trump’s plan has nothing to do with reducing crime.
Having learned about Trump’s plans to send the National Guard to Chicago, reading of it in the Washington Post, Pritzker said if Trump were serious about reducing crime, he would have contacted his office, the mayor or the police, but he did not.
“This is not about crime,” said Pritzker. “This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey, Stephen Miller, searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities and end elections.
“This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals,” Pritzker said.
“There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention. There is no inter-insurrection. There is no insurrection. Like every major American city in both blue and red states, we deal with crime in Chicago. Indeed, the violent crime rate is worse in red states and red cities,” Pritzker pointed out.
Saying neither Chicago nor any city can claim it has solved crime, Pritzker said to deploy the military to invade “our streets and neighborhoods and disrupt the lives of everyday people is an extraordinary action” which he says requires an “extraordinary justification.”
Pritzker said Chicagoans don’t want their neighborhoods “turned into a war zone by a wannabe dictator” or have to take their children to school passing through a “checkpoint with unidentified officers in masks.”
Saying crime is down in Chicago, Pritzker listed a litany of anti-crime legislation that has been passed including banning assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and a great deal of money directed into violence intervention programs.
“Those strategies have been working. Crime is dropping in Chicago. Murders are down 32 per cent compared to last year and nearly cut in half since 2021.”
Pritzker pointed out that, “Shootings are down 37 percent since last year, and 57 percent from four years ago. Robberies are down 34 percent year over year. Burglaries are down 21 percent, and motor vehicle thefts are down 26 percent.”
Illustrating Trump’s “fabricated” crime crises, Pritzker said 13 of the top 20 cities with high homicide rates have Republican governors. “None of these cities is Chicago.”
Further, Pritzker pointed out that eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans and emphasized, “None of those states is Illinois.”
Pritzker added, “Memphis, Tennessee; Hattiesburg, Mississippi have higher crime rates than Chicago, and yet Donald Trump is sending troops here and not there? Ask yourself why?”
Asking the press to tell the truth, Pritzker added, “If Donald Trump were actually serious about fighting crime in cities like Chicago, he, along with his congressional Republicans, would not be cutting over $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants nationally, including cutting $158 million in funding to Illinois for violence prevention programs that deploy trained outreach workers to deescalate conflict on our streets.”
Cutting $71 million in law enforcement grants to Illinois, direct money for police departments through programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, the state and local Antiterrorism Training Program, and the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative, cutting $137 million in child protection measures in Illinois that protect our kids against abuse and neglect is not helpful nor a deterrent to violence according to many activists.
“Trump is defunding the police” Pritzker charged, accusing the President of engaging in a “dangerous power grab to punish his dissidents and to score political points.” His message to Trump was, “Do not come to Chicago.”
Reminding Trump of the nation’s federal system based on a separation of powers that includes a system of check and balances, Pritzker said, “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.”
“What we are witnessing today is devastating. The President of the United States has chosen to target Black and brown communities that are already traumatized by state-sanctioned violence and white supremacy,” said Reverend Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director, Live Free Illinois.
“This is not just politics. This is states sanctioned violence. This is an authoritarian stunt. This is a declaration on our people,” she stated accusing the Trump administration of “listening to a handful of Judas voices willing to sell out their own communities by propping up a few to betray the many. That is white supremacy.”
“There are cities in Missouri, Louisiana and Mississippi with higher homicide rates than Chicago; yet they were not targeted because this is not about saving lives. It’s about punishing Illinois leadership, punishing Black and brown resistance and punishing Black hope,” Chamberlain stated.
“Several other advocates and public officials also spoke at the press conference, voicing support for community-based violence prevention strategies and rejecting federal intervention.”