Illinois Attorney General sues to block President Donald Trump's National Guard deployment

Dan Petrella, Chicago Tribune on Oct 6, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CHICAGO — The state of Illinois and city of Chicago sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday to block the deployment of Illinois and Texas National Guard troops, which the White House claims is necessary to protect federal immigration personnel and facilities amid its escalated deportation actions.

The legal action, filed in federal court in Chicago, comes as Trump has federalized up to 300 Illinois Guard members over the objections of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and as Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has agreed to send troops from his state.

In its 69-page filing, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office asked the federal court to find the federalization and deployment of National Guard troops unconstitutional and to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from deploying troops to the state over Pritzker’s objections. Late Sunday, Hegseth also authorized sending 400 National Guard troops from Texas to Illinois, Oregon and potentially other states.

“The Trump administration’s illegal actions already have subjected and are subjecting Illinois to serious and irreparable harm. The deployment of federalized National Guard, including from another state, infringes on Illinois’s sovereignty and right to self-governance,” the filing stated. “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.”

Given Trump’s weekslong flirtation with sending troops to Chicago and the shifting rationale, which at first was ostensibly about combating violent crime in the city but has since shifted to protecting immigration enforcement operations amid the administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” “the manufactured nature of the crisis is clear,” the state argued in its filing.

In arguing its case, the attorney general’s office pointed to recent court decisions in federal court in Oregon, where a judge Trump appointed to the bench has issued two orders blocking the federalization of that state’s Guard and subsequently the deployment of Guard members from neighboring California.

“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’s office wrote.

____