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    Trump ‘looking at all options’ amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act, Vance says

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    The White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act that would allow the deployment of military troops on US soil to quell domestic unrest amid legal challenges over the moves, JD Vance confirmed on Sunday.Vance was asked on NBC News’s Meet the Press whether Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy national guard forces and even the US military in domestic settings.“The president’s looking at all of his options,” he said, adding that “we are talking about this because crime has gotten out of control in our cities”.Trump’s attempts to use federal national guard forces in Democratic-run cities has faced challenges in the courts, most notably in Chicago in recent days.The vice-president’s ominous remarks came days after Trump referred to the Insurrection Act from the Oval Office, bluntly stating: “If I had to enact it, I would do that.” Military forces are forbidden from engaging in law enforcement duties on home soil.But under the Insurrection Act, which was signed in 1807, the president can deploy them domestically in cases of insurrection or rebellion, violence that is preventing the functioning of federal laws.The power was used during the 1960s civil rights movement during clashes over desegregation of the south but since then has been very rarely activated. The last time a president called on it was in 1992 when the governor of California requested military aid from George HW Bush in response to civil unrest in Los Angeles.In Sunday’s Meet the Press interview, Vance said Trump “hasn’t felt he needed to” invoke the Insurrection Act up to this point. But he confirmed that it was among the tactics being considered as the administration continues to be stymied in federal courts from deploying federalised national guard forces in Democratic-run cities.Federal courts have blocked the White House from using troops in Oregon and Illinois. On Thursday a federal judge prohibited the deployment of federalised national guard personnel in Chicago, admonishing the administration that she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion in the state of Illinois”.National guard troops have been sent into Illinois by the Trump administration from both Texas and California but under the temporary court order cannot be put out into the streets.Vance told NBC News that options such as the Insurrection Act were being considered because “there are places in Chicago where people are afraid to take their children … for fear of gun violence, for fear of gang drive-by shootings”.In a separate interview with This Week on ABC News, Vance said that Chicago had been given over to “lawlessness and gangs” and had a murder rate “that rivals the worst places in the third world”.In fact, violent crime has been falling at unprecedented rates in America’s biggest cities including Chicago over the past two years. Chicago is not in the top four large US cities with the highest murder rates – all of whom are in states controlled by Republicans.As Vance did the rounds of Sunday’s political talkshows, tension between the Trump administration and the Democratic states it is targeting exploded across TV screens. The vice-president was repeatedly asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC News whether the Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, had committed a crime that could see him being prosecuted by the Department of Justice as have several other of Trump’s “political enemies”.Vance skirted the question until he was pressed into saying: “He should suffer consequences. Whether he has violated a crime I would leave to the courts, but he has certainly violated his oath of office and that seems pretty criminal to me.”Pritzker responded to the veiled threat by accusing Vance of coming out with a “tidal wave of lies”. The governor told This Week that he was not intimidated by the prospect of prosecution as has befallen the former FBI director James Comey and the New York attorney general Letitia James, who have both been indicted in recent days.Pritzker said: “I am not afraid. Do I think he could do it? He might. But as I have said before, come and get me. I mean, you’re dead wrong, Mr President and Mr Vice-President, and I will stand up for the law and the constitution.”Raw emotions were widely on display across the TV studios as the federal government shutdown entered day 12. The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, told Fox News Sunday that the crisis had been orchestrated by Democratic leaders in Congress as a partisan move “so that they can prove to their Marxist base that they are willing to fight Trump”.He said that after eight attempts to reopen the government had all failed in votes in the Senate, the shutdown was causing “real pain for real people – and the Democrats don’t seem to care”.On the same program, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, denied that the Democratic stance was partisan. “We will sit down with anyone, any time, any place, go back to the White House, to have a bipartisan discussion about reopening the government,” he said.The Democrats’ aim, Jeffries added, was to “improve the quality of life of the American people and address the healthcare crisis that threatens tens of millions of people across the country”. More

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      National guard begins Memphis patrols as senators in Illinois are turned away from Ice facility

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      As national guard troops patrolled in Memphis – Tennessee’s second-largest city – for the first time on Friday, Democratic US senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth said they had been barred from visiting an immigration enforcement building near Chicago.The senators stopped by the facility in suburban Broadview on Friday, requesting a tour of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility and to deliver supplies to protesters who have been demonstrating at the site for weeks.Their visit coincides with a ruling that the fencing installed at the site must be taken down. A federal judge late Thursday ordered Ice to remove an 8ft-tall (2.4 meters) fence outside the Broadview facility after the Village of Broadview said it illegally blocks a public street.Both senators spoke to the local NBC News affiliate while there and have pushed for answers and called for oversight into the conditions inside the facility.“We just want to go in and look at the facility and see what the conditions are and they would not let us in. It is shameful,” Duckworth said.“They’ve refused to tell us this information,” Durbin stated. “I’ve done this job for a few years now, I’ve never had this stonewalling by any presidential administration.”“What are you afraid of?” Duckworth said to reporters, referring to the government. “You don’t hide, you don’t run away when you’re proud of what you’re doing.”The senators said they have congressional oversight authority.“Something is going on in there they don’t want us to see,” Durbin said. “I don’t know what it is.”To the south, in Tennessee, at least nine armed guard members began their patrol at the Bass Pro Shops located at the Pyramid, a Memphis landmark, about a mile (1.6km) from historic Beale Street and FedExForum, where the NBA’s Grizzlies play.View image in fullscreenThey also were at a nearby tourist welcome center along the Mississippi River. Wearing guard fatigues and protective vests labeled “military police”, the troops were escorted by a local police officer and posed for photos with visitors.Trump has sent or discussed sending troops to other cities as well, including Baltimore; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The federal government says the troops support immigration agents and protect federal property.The guard troops in Memphis remain under the command of the Republican governor, Bill Lee, who supports their use to further a federal crackdown on crime.By contrast, Trump has attempted to deploy national guard troops – including some from Texas and California – in Portland and Chicago after taking control of them himself, over objections from state and local leaders who say such interference violates their sovereignty and federal law. Federal courts in Illinois and Oregon this week blocked Trump’s efforts to send troops out in those cities.The US district judge April Perry in Chicago said the Trump administration had violated the 10th amendment, which grants certain powers to states, and the 14th amendment, which assures due process and equal protection, when he ordered national guard troops to that city.In a written order Friday explaining her rationale, Perry noted the nation’s long aversion to having military involvement in domestic policing.“Not even the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government” – referring to Alexander Hamilton – “believed that one state’s militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution,” Perry wrote.“The court confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the national guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago,” the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, said.An earlier court battle in Oregon delayed a similar troop deployment to Portland. The 9th US circuit court of appeals heard arguments in that case Thursday.Lt Cmdr Teresa Meadows, a spokesperson for US northern command, said the troops sent to Portland and Chicago are “not conducting any operational activities at this time”. More

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      Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s effort to deploy national guard in Chicago

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      A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from federalizing or deploying the national guard in Illinois after Donald Trump ordered hundreds of troops to Chicago to help with immigration enforcement and to battle what the White House says are high crime rates in the city.US district judge April Perry issued her decision from the bench after more than two hours of arguments from lawyers for the federal government and the state of Illinois, which sued the Trump administration over the deployment. The order took effect on Thursday and will remain in place for two weeks.According to reporters present in the courtroom, Perry said she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion in the state of Illinois”. On Thursday evening, around the time of Perry’s ruling, about half a dozen guard soldiers were milling around inside the gate at the Ice center in Broadview. A group of about 10 protesters were outside.Illinois governor JB Pritzker said in a statement: “Donald Trump is not a king – and his administration is not above the law.”Quoting the judge, he said: “Today, the court confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the national guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago.”Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, who attended the court hearing, called the decision a “win for the people of Chicago and the rule of law”. He vowed that the city would “continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to end the Trump administration’s war on Chicago”.Lawyers for the state of Illinois had called the sending of national guard soldiers to the city – which was opposed by Chicago and state political leaders – a constitutional crisis.The government “plowed ahead anyway”, attorney Christopher Wells said. “Now, troops are here.” Chicago and Illinois, run by Democratic elected leaders, say Trump has exceeded his authority and ignored their pleas to keep the national guard off the streets.Eric Hamilton, a justice department lawyer, said the Chicago area was rife with “tragic lawlessness”.“Chicago is seeing a brazen new form of hostility from rioters targeting federal law enforcement,” Hamilton said. “They’re not protesters. There is enough that there is a danger of a rebellion here, which there is.”In handing down her order, Perry assailed the Department of Homeland Security for providing a version of events on the ground that was “simply unreliable”.Lawyers for Illinois and local officials have said the government is exaggerating and misrepresenting the situation in Chicago, which Trump has referred to as a “war zone”.Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, said the president had “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets” and “will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities”. She added that the president and his administration “expect to be vindicated by the court” upon appeal.National guard members from Texas and Illinois arrived this week at a US army reserve center in Elwood, south-west of Chicago. All 500 national guard members are under the US northern command and have been activated for 60 days.Earlier this week, Trump said Johnson and Pritzker should be jailed for failing to protect federal agents during immigration enforcement crackdowns.Two dozen other states with a Democratic attorney general or governor have signed an appeals court filing in support of the legal challenge by California – and also one in the Portland, Oregon, where a similar troop deployment is also being challenged.The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.In a separate ruling on Thursday, the US district judge Sara Ellis issued a preliminary injunction restricting agents’ use of force, including pepper balls, rubber bullets and physical force such as pulling, shoving or tackling against protesters and journalists who don’t pose a serious threat to law enforcement.Ellis’s order covers all of northern Illinois and also requires federal agents to wear “visible identification” such as badges, the subject of heated debate as viral footage has surfaced of masked, plainclothes officers carrying out immigration enforcements in several US cities.Trump previously sent troops to Los Angeles and Washington DC. In Memphis, Tennessee, Paul Young, the city’s mayor, said national guard members would begin patrolling on Friday. Bill Lee, Tennessee’s Republican governor, supports using the troops.The Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      Trump says ‘we’re only going to cut Democrat programs’ as Senate again fails to pass dueling funding bills – live

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      New York state attorney general Letitia James sent out this statement on the news that she has been indicted by a federal grand jury for bank fraud after one of Trump’s US attorneys, Lindsey Halligan, personally presented the case to the grand jury.She also posted a video of her statement on X:“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General.“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.“His decision to fire a United States Attorney who refused to bring charges against me – and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law, but to the president – is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country. This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice.“I stand strongly behind my office’s litigation against the Trump Organization. We conducted a two-year investigation based on the facts and evidence – not politics. Judges have upheld the trial court’s finding that Donald Trump, his company, and his two sons are liable for fraud.“I am a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space. And so today I am not fearful, I am fearless, and as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights. And I will continue to do my job.”New York governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has also made a statement in support of New York attorney general Letitia James, accusing Trump of weaponizing his Justice Department who “punish those who hold the powerful accountable.”The American Civil Liberties Union is calling the Trump Justice Department’s indictment of New York attorney general Letitia James “the latest in a long list of brazen abuses of power by President Trump” and a “stunning violation.” “He has continued to weaponize our nation’s judicial system to settle personal vendettas, attack his political opponents, and silence his critics,” the ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.“President Trump’s open interference in the Department of Justice’s investigation – demanding charges, forcing out the prosecutor, and installing a loyalist – is a stunning violation of our country’s long tradition of an independent judicial system. The indictment of Letitia James makes it clearer than ever that President Trump has prioritized retaliation over the rule of law.“Whether it’s targeting Jimmy Kimmel, James Comey, Letitia James, or the millions of everyday people exercising their rights to free speech, this administration’s efforts to prosecute, bully, and intimidate will only strengthen the People’s resolve to exercise our freedoms and defend our democracy.”New York state attorney general Letitia James sent out this statement on the news that she has been indicted by a federal grand jury for bank fraud after one of Trump’s US attorneys, Lindsey Halligan, personally presented the case to the grand jury.She also posted a video of her statement on X:“This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General.“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties.“His decision to fire a United States Attorney who refused to bring charges against me – and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law, but to the president – is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country. This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice.“I stand strongly behind my office’s litigation against the Trump Organization. We conducted a two-year investigation based on the facts and evidence – not politics. Judges have upheld the trial court’s finding that Donald Trump, his company, and his two sons are liable for fraud.“I am a proud woman of faith, and I know that faith and fear cannot share the same space. And so today I am not fearful, I am fearless, and as my faith teaches me, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights. And I will continue to do my job.”Letitia James fixated on Donald Trump as she campaigned for New York attorney general, branding the then-president a “con man” and ″carnival barker” and pledging to shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings,” the Associated Press reported in 2023.That year, James appeared to be on the verged of disrupting Trump’s real estate empire after a judge ruled Tuesday that he defrauded banks, insurers and others by exaggerating the value of assets on paperwork used for deals and securing loans.Her civil fraud lawsuit against Trump was not her only legal battle against a powerful and prominent opponent:

      In 2021, James oversaw an investigation of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment. The inquiry led to a remarkable downfall for the once-rising star in the Democratic party. Lawyers hired by James concluded that 11 women were telling the truth when they said Cuomo touched them inappropriately, commented on their appearance or made suggestive comments about their sex lives. Cuomo alleged that James used the investigation to further her own political aspirations.

      James also led a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association in a case that accuses its leaders of financial mismanagement, which led to the resignation of powerful NRA leader Wayne LaPierre
      Video made public in 2023 showed Donald Trump personally answering questions from New York attorney general Letitia James in the civil fraud case she brought against him, and pleading the fifth more than 400 times.Now, James, one of the attorneys who succeeded in holding Trump legally accountable for his behavior, has been indicted for bank fraud by a federal grand jury, in what appears to be president’s latest effort to weaponize the federal Department of Justice to punish his political rivals.Here’s more background on Letitia James, the New York state attorney general who went after Trump, and has now been indicted by Trump administration-appointed federal prosecutors.James filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump in 2022, which alleged that he inflated his net worth by billions of dollars on his financial statements and habitually misled banks and others about the value of prized assets, including golf courses, hotels, the Trump Tower skyscraper in Manhattan and his Mar-a-Lago estate in south Florida.In 2024, she won what she called a “tremendous victory” in the case, saying “Donald Trump is finally facing accountability for his lying, cheating and staggering fraud. Because no matter how big, rich or powerful you think you are, no one is above the law.”Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last year that James had proved Trump engaged in a years-long conspiracy with executives at his company to deceive banks and insurers.Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355m – payback of what the judge deemed “ill-gotten gains” from his puffed-up financial statements. That amount soared to more than $515m, including interest, by the time an appellate court ruled this year that the judgment was “excessive.”Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday night that Israel and Hamas had agreed the first phase of a new ceasefire deal in Gaza. We’ve been here before, but is it different this time? Has Trump proved the doubters wrong?Jonathan Freedland speaks to Julian Borger about the prospect for peace in the Middle East and the US president’s role in getting to this pointThe president also confirmed that he’ll head to the Middle East “sometime Sunday”.“Everybody I see is celebrating in Israel, but they’re celebrating in many other countries too. A lot of the Muslim and Arab countries, they’re celebrating,” he added.In response to a reporter’s question, Donald Trump also said that no one would be forced to leave Gaza as it’s being rebuilt. “It’s just the opposite. This is a great plan. This is a great peace plan,” he said. “We’re not looking to do that at all.”The president has called out Spain for not paying five per cent on defense spending that Donald Trump has urged.Spain is currently the only Nato member who has refused to pay more of its GDP on defense.”We had one laggard. It was Spain,” Trump said. “You have to call them and find why are they a laggard … they have no excuse not to do this. But that’s all right, maybe you should throw them Nato.”Trump said that he thought that brokering an end to the war in Ukraine would have been “one of the easier ones”, but is confident that a ceasefire will be on the horizon “hopefully soon”.“I think Russia is actually right now, both economically and militarily, not in a very strong place,” Stubb added, praising Donald Trump for pushing European allies to boycott sales of Russian oil and gas.Donald Trump and Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, are meeting now in the Oval Office. Stubb congratulated Trump on the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
      If someone would have said a few weeks back that you and your team are able to push us to a position where there will be a cease fire, an exchange of prisoners, hostages, and then a pullback, I would not have believed it, but it’s this is what diplomacy is at its best.

      The Senate has rejected, for the seventh time, a House-passed bill to keep the government funded until 21 November – leaving no end in sight for shutdown as it enters its ninth day. The continuing resolution failed to pass the 60-vote threshold to advance. The upper chamber also failed to pass a Democratic alternative, replete with several health care provisions. Congressional lawmakers from both sides of the aisle continue to trade barbs, blaming the other party for the lapse in government funding.

      At his eight cabinet meeting, Donald Trump took a victory lap following the agreement of the first phase of a ceasefire deal by Israel and Hamas. The meeting lasted just over an hour, and the president said that the Gaza hostages should be released on Monday or Tuesday and that he hopes to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt. Trump also said that he had agreed to speak at the Knesset on his upcoming trip to the Middle East.

      Two federal courts heard arguments over the Trump administration’s deployment of national guard troops to Democratic-run cities. A three-panel judge on the ninth circuit court of appeals wrapped a hearing to decide whether to allow the president’s deployment of national guard troops to Portland, Oregon. Last week a lower court judge blocked the administration from federalizing troops. Meanwhile, in Chicago, April Perry, a district court judge, held a hearing in a very similar case, after protests erupted outside immigration facilities throughout the city and Trump deployed hundreds of national guard officers from Illinois and Texas to Chicago. After closing arguments, Perry asked lawyers to be back at the court in a few hours.

      Meanwhile, Trump’s homeland security secretary said that the department is buying buildings in Chicago and Portland where agents can operate. “We’re going to not back off,” Kristi Noem said at today’s cabinet meeting. “In fact, we’re doubling down, and we’re going to be in more parts of Chicago in response to the people there.”
      The president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, has arrived at the White House. Donald Trump will hold a bilateral meeting with the Finnish leader shortly. More

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      National guard remains in Chicago area as judge to rule on Trump deployment

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      Hundreds of national guard troops remained in the Chicago area as city and Illinois officials awaited a judge’s decision to stop Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation’s third-largest city.It was still unclear where specifically the Trump administration would send the troops who reported to an army training site south-west of Chicago, which was laden with extra fencing and tarps put up to block the public’s view of the facility late on Wednesday evening.As they arrived this week, trucks marked Emergency Disaster Services pulled in and out, dropping off portable toilets and other supplies. Trailers were set up in rows.“The federal government has not communicated with us in any way about their troop movements,” the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, told reporters. “I can’t believe I have to say ‘troop movements’ in an American city, but that is what we’re talking about here.”Roughly 500 soldiers – 200 from the Texas national guard and 300 from the Illinois national guard – were mobilized to the city for an “initial period of 60 days”, according to statement issued from US Northern Command, part of the defense department, which called the operation a “federal protection mission”.The guard members are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) buildings and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, according to Northern Command.A small number of troops have started protecting federal property in the Chicago area, officials told the Associated Press.Footage of uniformed troops arriving early on Thursday morning at an Ice processing facility in the suburban community of Broadview, which has become a focal point of protests. They carried shields and what appeared to be luggage.In a statement, the village of Broadview said three vans carrying 45 members of the Texas national guard had arrived at the federal building.“During their patrols, Broadview police officers observed the vans parked in the rear of 2000 25th Ave and all of the guards were sleeping. We let them sleep undisturbed. We hope that they will extend the same courtesy in the coming days to Broadview residents who deserve a good night’s sleep, too,” the statement said.While the deployment came as part of a crackdown threatened by Trump, in response to unsubstantiated claims that big cities run by Democrats are overwhelmed with crime, the stated mission says military would be “performing ground activities to protect federal functions, personnel, and property”.It marks Trump’s fourth deployment of national guard troops on to the streets of a major US city in as many months, following deployments in Los Angeles, Washington DC and Memphis. In all cases except Memphis, it has been against the wishes of state and city leaders.Trump repeatedly has described Chicago in hostile terms, calling it a “hellhole” of crime, although police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including homicides.A judge will also have a role in determining how many boots are on the streets: a court hearing was being held on Thursday after a request by Illinois and Chicago to declare the guard deployment illegal.The state of Illinois urged April Perry, a federal judge, to order the national guard to stand down, calling the deployment a constitutional crisis. The government “plowed ahead anyway”, attorney Christopher Wells said. “Now, troops are here.”Wells’ arguments opened an extraordinary hearing where heavy public turnout at the downtown Chicago courthouse caused officials to open an overflow room with a video feed of the hearing.Eric Hamilton, a justice department lawyer, said the Chicago area was rife with “tragic lawlessness”. He discussed an incident last weekend in which a Border Patrol vehicle was reportedly boxed in and an agent shot a woman in response.But in a court filing, the city and state lawyers say protests at the Ice building in Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement”.“The president is using the Broadview protests as a pretext,” they wrote. “The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the president’s administration to target jurisdictions the president dislikes.”It’s one of several major court fights on the deployment of federal troops to American cities.Also Thursday, a federal appeals court heard arguments over whether Trump had the authority to take control of 200 Oregon national guard troops. The president had planned to deploy them in Portland, where there have been mostly small nightly protests outside an Ice building.US district judge Karin Immergut on Saturday granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Oregon troops’ deployment, and on Sunday blocked the deployment of any national guard troops to the city.The case at the heart of Sunday’s decision was brought by the states of Oregon and California, whose national troops Trump had sent to Portland. Two dozen other states with a Democratic attorney general or governor signed a court filing in support of the legal challenge by California and Oregon. Twenty others, led by Iowa, backed the Trump administration.The case centers around the nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.“This is about authoritarianism. It’s about stoking fear,” Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, said. “It’s about breaking the constitution that would give him that much more control over our American cities.”Trump, meanwhile, sent barbs from Washington, saying on social media that Pritzker and Johnson, both Democrats, “should be in jail” for failing to protect federal agents during immigration enforcement crackdowns.Asked about Trump’s wish to jail him, Pritzker extended his arms and told MSNBC: “If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me.”Meanwhile, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said the department was “doubling down” by buying buildings in Chicago – and also Portland – for Ice personnel to operate from.“We’re purchasing more buildings in Chicago to operate out of. We’re going to not back off,” she said. “In fact, we’re doubling down, and we’re going to be in more parts of Chicago in response to the people there.”At the same time in Memphis, a small group of troops were helping on Wednesday with the Memphis Safe Task Force, said a state military department spokesperson who did not specify the exact role or number of the guard members. The taskforce is a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered by Trump to fight crime.Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, who has welcomed the guard, has said previously that he would not expect more than 150 guard members to be sent to the city.The Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      Judge refuses to block Trump’s deployment of national guard to Illinois

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      A federal judge will not immediately block national guard troops from being deployed in Illinois after a lawsuit from the state against the president on Monday.Troops from Texas could be deployed to Chicago later this week, and Trump is also seeking to federalize the Illinois’national guard. A similar effort to deploy troops to Portland was blocked by a judge in Oregon.Illinois sued the Trump administration on behalf of the state and the city of Chicago on Monday after the president ordered national guard troops to deploy in the state against the governor’s wishes.The Illinois attorney general, Kwame Raoul, filed a lawsuit seeking to stop Donald Trump from calling up the state’s national guard or sending in troops from other states “immediately and permanently”.“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 out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit says.Trump has gone after Democratic-led cities, sending in military to clamp down on protests and aid in his deportation agenda. He has declared war on Chicago, threatening for weeks to send in more troops while immigration agents scoured the city for people to deport, and local residents protested against his crackdown.Raoul argues that these efforts to send in guard troops against a state’s will infringe upon the state’s sovereignty and self-governance while leading to unrest and harm for the state’s residents.“It will cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police. It also creates economic harm, depressing business activities and tourism that not only hurt Illinoisians but also hurt Illinois’s tax revenue,” Raoul wrote.Illinois’s governor, JB Pritzker, said the Trump administration had not discussed plans to federalize the state’s national guard or to send in troops from other states.“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” he said in a statement. “It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois national guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”A Trump-appointed judge in Oregon blocked Trump from sending in troops to Portland. Governor Gavin Newsom of California is also fighting against troops being sent from his state to Oregon. Troops from Texas were going to be sent to Portland and Chicago, with the blessing of Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott.Trump administration officials have railed against the ruling, saying a judge cannot prevent the president from moving troops. “Today’s judicial ruling is one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen – and is yet the latest example of unceasing efforts to nullify the 2024 election by fiat,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller wrote on X.Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, also signed an executive order to prohibit federal immigration agents from using city-owned property to conduct their operations, which comes after “documented use” of public school parking lots and a city-owned lot as staging sites, Johnson said in a press release.“We will not tolerate Ice agents violating our residents’ constitutional rights nor will we allow the federal government to disregard our local authority. ICE agents are detaining elected officials, tear-gassing protestors, children, and Chicago police officers, and abusing Chicago residents. We will not stand for that in our city,” Johnson said in a statement.At a press briefing on Monday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that cities like Chicago were refusing to cooperate with troops because they don’t like the president. She claimed Trump wants to make cities safer.“You guys are framing this like the president wants to take over the American cities with the military,” she said. “The president wants to help these local leaders who have been completely ineffective in securing their own cities.” More

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      Kristi Noem calls Chicago a ‘war zone’ after federal agents shoot woman

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      Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, called Chicago “a war zone” on Sunday after federal agents shot a woman and the governor of Illinois accused the administration of fueling the crisis rather than resolving it.Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Noem took aim at the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s Ice raids and deployment of the national guard in Illinois, a measure he called “unhinged and unhealthy”.“It’s wrong, there should be consequences for that and for leaders that stand up and knowingly lie about the situation on the ground,” Noem said. “His city is a war zone and he’s lying so that criminals can go in there and destroy people’s lives.”Noem’s remarks followed Trump’s authorization to deploy 300 members of the Illinois national guard to Chicago, with orders to protect federal officers and property. The move came just weeks after national guard troops were sent to Washington, where the president federalized the city’s police force in what he described as a “crackdown” on crime, a pattern now extending to a string of other US cities. “We’re going to be doing Chicago probably next,” Trump had said at the time.Noem defended the administration’s course of action, insisting on Fox that residents supported the government intervention. “They understand that where we have gone we have made it much more free,” she said. “People are much safer, we have got a thousand criminals that are off the streets of Chicago, just because we’ve been there.”Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday, the Democratic Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, accused the administration of fueling the crisis rather than resolving it. “They are the ones who are making it a war zone,” he said.“They need to get out of Chicago. If they’re not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the president said they are going to do, they need to get the heck out.”Border patrol agents on Saturday shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over. The woman who was shot was a US citizen and was armed with a semi-automatic weapon, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, noting that the woman was accused in a US Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin last week of doxing agents.Pritzker also condemned the deployment in a post on X on Saturday, writing: “The Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will.” Pritzker called the decision “absolutely outrageous and un-American,” and added that it had been made “against our will”. More

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      Illinois senator demands to meet with Ice amid clashes at immigration facility

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      After days of clashes between federal officers and protesters at an immigration jail in his home state of Illinois, Democratic US senator Dick Durbin on Sunday renewed demands to meet with Trump administration immigration officials.Durbin wrote on X that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) must be “accountable for its actions” amid the administration’s “cruel immigration crackdown”. The post on Sunday morning came after Saturday night protests and arrests at an immigration detention center in Broadview, Illinois.For the preceding few days, federal officials have arrested protesters at the Broadview facility as Ice operations have escalated in Illinois.Durbin, along with Illinois representative Delia Ramirez and other Democrats, have been pressing for a congressional oversight visit to the Broadview facility for weeks in connection with reports of poor conditions.According to a letter written by Durbin and Ramirez on Friday, Democratic members of Congress have been unable to access the Broadview facility nor meet with immigration officials, as they have requested.Durbin and Ramirez informed Ice earlier in September of an upcoming oversight visit to the facility, which members of congress are allowed to do. But Ice in Chicago told Durbin and Ramirez they were “unable to support a visit”, according to the letter, and instead offered a meeting to the Democratic delegation. Ice on Friday postponed that meeting “to an unconfirmed date in October”, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.The Democratic pressure on Ice comes as protesters have clashed with officials at the Broadview site in recent days. On Saturday night, officials deployed pepper spray and rubber bullets and arrested a number of protesters outside the controversial immigration jail.In one video posted online on Saturday night, US border patrol officials, who have been dispatched to the area to assist in the Ice operations, can be seen deploying what is colloquially referred to as teargas on protesters standing outside the facility.On Sunday afternoon, a CBS Chicago reporter posted on Instagram that an Ice official “took a direct shot” at her car, saying that the official deployed gas into her open window. “Been puking for two hours,” the reporter said, adding that there were no protesters at the time and that she was just driving by the facility to check out the scene.Another local reporter in Chicago posted on X that the village of Broadview has opened a criminal investigation into that matter.View image in fullscreenThe Trump administration has called the protesters “rioters”, accusing them of inciting violence. On Saturday afternoon, Ice posted on X: “Rioters will not deter Ice from its law enforcement mission. All those assaulting or obstructing will be held accountable. Full stop.” In another post on Sunday morning, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said 11 people were arrested outside the Ice facility – and that officials had confiscated two guns during the arrests.In response, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, decried the force used by federal officials at the site. He also called on protesters and bystanders to “document what you see with your phones and cameras”.“The suggestion that chemical agents like tear gas or pepper spray could be used indiscriminately against peaceful demonstrators, or even first responders, is unacceptable and not normal,” Pritzker posted on X. “By observing and recording peacefully, we can ensure that any violations of the law are brought to light and those responsible are held accountable.”Tensions in the Chicago area have been escalating in recent weeks after the Trump administration and DHS launched an operation they dubbed Midway Blitz. The operation led to an increase in the number of federal officials in the area targeting immigrants.Already, the operation has led to a number of scandals for Ice and the Trump administration. Earlier in September, Ice shot and killed an immigrant they were trying to arrest in the Chicago area. Despite DHS saying an officer was “seriously injured” by the immigrant before the shooting, video later released seemed to contradict DHS’s claims.A recent court filing by immigrants rights groups has also claimed that US citizens have been rounded up during the immigration enforcement operations in the area.DHS says it launched Midway Blitz to target immigrants in the state, alleging that Pritzker and his “sanctuary policies” – a term meant to describe limitations on local police’s cooperating with federal immigration agents – welcomed undocumented immigrants.The Trump administration has made immigration enforcement arrests a top priority since it returned to office in January after Joe Biden’s presidency.Top DHS officials, in fact, instructed Ice to arrest at least 3,000 people daily throughout the US. As the Guardian reported on Friday, due to the Trump administration’s intense escalation, immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in Ice detention. More