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President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard members to Chicago on Saturday to protect federal officers and property amid ongoing unrest, while federal agents shot and injured a woman during a confrontation on the city’s southwest side, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump approved the deployment in response to “violent riots and lawlessness” that local officials had failed to control. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” Jackson said.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, condemned the move as “outrageous and un-American,” saying the Pentagon informed him early Saturday. “The Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said. “It is absolutely outrageous to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
Federal officials have not disclosed when or where the National Guard will be deployed.
The decision came hours after a Border Patrol shooting in southwest Chicago that left one woman injured. DHS officials said agents were “rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars” before firing “defensively” at a suspect who allegedly tried to run them over.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the woman, identified as Marimar Martinez, was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and had previously been flagged in a Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin for allegedly posting personal details about agents online.
Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was treated for her injuries and taken into FBI custody. Another suspect, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, was also detained. No federal officers were seriously injured, McLaughlin said.
The Chicago Police Department confirmed that its officers responded to the scene but emphasized that the department “is not involved in the incident or its investigation.” Federal officials are leading the inquiry.
The deployment marks the latest escalation in tensions between Trump and Democratic state leaders as federal authorities expand immigration enforcement operations in major U.S. cities, including weekend controversies in Portland, Oregon.
