1 of 2 | On Monday, a lawsuit filed by Illinois seeks to block federal deployment of U.S. National Guard troops, and cited legal principles that limit presidential authority to involve American combat units on U.S. soil. It’s “absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (pictured January 2022 in East St. Louis, Illinois) said Saturday. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 6 (UPI) — Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit Monday to block the Trump administration’s federal troop deployment to the state’s most populated metropolis, hours before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted a photo showing National Guard members “deploying now.”
The photo, released Monday night, showed the troops wearing fatigues, helmets and shields as they boarded a military aircraft.
“The elite Texas National Guard. Ever ready. Deploying now,” the Republican governor wrote in a post on X.
Abbott said his state’s National Guard will fly to “parts of the country where they will be able to safeguard ICE officials and other federal officials as they try to enforce the laws of the United States of America,” the governor told Fox News on Monday night. Some of the troops are expected to travel to Illinois.
Earlier Monday, Illinois filed a lawsuit, seeking to block the federal deployment of National Guard troops and cited legal principles that limit presidential authority to involve American combat troops on U.S. soil. A federal judge gave the Trump administration two days to respond and, as of Monday night, had not blocked any deployments.
Meantime, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the deployment of troops to Chicago, “illegal, dangerous and unconstitutional.”
“Illinois is taking the Trump Administration to court for their unlawful and unconstitutional deployment of military troops to our state,” Pritzker said on social media as he thanked state Attorney General Kwame Raoul for “helping defend the rule of law.”
In the complaint, the state named as defendants U.S. President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll.
“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 Illinois attorney general wrote in a court filing.
The state’s lawsuit expressed that the order to federalize troops “represents the exact type of intrusion on State power that is at the heart of the Tenth Amendment” of the U.S. Constitution.
The complaint further pointed to widening issues of “economic harm” as the president’s unwanted federalization of American cities persists, and a noted lag in local tourism and other activity hurting state tax revenue.
On Saturday, Pritzker said the Trump administration issued him “an ultimatum” to “call up your troops, or we will.”
The governor said it was “absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker wrote on Bluesky.