Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson said his city will not accept federal troops or agents, rejecting President Donald Trump’s plan to send them in after a wave of holiday weekend shootings that left nine people dead and 54 others wounded across the city.
Trump vowed to send National Guard troops into Chicago following another deadly holiday weekend, when police said nine were killed and 54 were injured in gunfire, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The administration argues Chicago’s violence demands a stronger federal response, while city and state leaders claim this would be government overreach.
Meanwhile, Johnson has already taken a firm stance against the use of National Guard troops in the city — even invoking slavery and indigenous history instead of addressing the crisis at hand.
“No federal troops in the city of Chicago. No militarized force in the city of Chicago,” said Johnson during a protest over the weekend, per The Hill. “We’re going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago. We’re going to protect the humanity of every single person in the city of Chicago.”
Johnson’s comments come shortly after he signed an executive order that would prevent city law enforcement officers from assisting federal troops or immigration agents.
“This sweeping executive order directs our department of law to pursue any and every legal mechanism to hold this administration accountable for violating the rights of Chicagoans,” stated Johnson, per NBC 5 Chicago.
The White House has already denounced this order, writing in a statement that “communities would be much safer” if Democrats focused on fixing crime in their cities rather than on “publicity stunts to criticize the President.”
“Cracking down on crime should not be a partisan issue, but Democrats suffering from TDS are trying to make it one. They should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser, who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington DC,” continued the statement, per NPR.
Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has also spoken out against the potential deployment of National Guard troops, claiming that Trump is “making up his own facts.”
“Listen, the crime rate has gone down. You heard the numbers of decreases in homicides and shootings and other violent crimes that have gone down and have been going down for the last four years,” she said, according to The Hill.
Lightfoot’s comments are backed up by the most recent violent crime statistics, which show a significant decrease over the past four years. Yet even with those drops, Chicago has recorded more murders this year than New York and Los Angeles combined.
Residents say those “historic reductions” don’t erase daily fears. Rochelle Sykes, a grandmother in West Garfield Park, told CNN, “My grandkids can’t sit outside. They can’t sit in the living room or at the kitchen table, because a bullet may come through.”
Johnson, meanwhile, invoked slavery and indigenous land in defending his stance against federal troops — rhetoric critics argue deflects from the city’s immediate public safety crisis.
Regardless, Trump has vowed to send National Guard troops into the city. But for many Chicago families, the debate over politics and authority misses the point — nine people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a single weekend, and parents still don’t feel safe letting their kids walk outside.