National Guard deployed to Chicago, set to reach Memphis

Federal agents keep demonstrators away from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, on Tuesday. PIC/AFP

National Guard troops are positioned outside Chicago and could reach Memphis by Friday as the Trump administration pushes ahead with an aggressive policy toward big-city crime, whether local leaders support it or not. National Guard members from Texas had settled in at an Army Reserve centre in Illinois by early Wednesday, opposition from Democratic leaders.

Their exact mission was not clear, though the Trump administration has an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation's third-largest city, and protesters have frequently rallied at an immigration building outside Chicago in Broadview.

The president has called Chicago a "hell hole" of crime, though statistics show significant drops. In Memphis, Tennessee, commanders were already in the city, planning for the arrival of Guard troops.

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