An executive order signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson bars the Chicago Police Department from assisting federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or related patrols, traffic stops, and checkpoints during the surge
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. PIC/X
The mayor of Chicago pushed back on Saturday against what he described as the “out-of-control” plan by the Trump administration to send federal officers into the nation’s third-largest city, a move that could take place within days, AP reported.
An executive order signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson bars the Chicago Police Department from assisting federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or related patrols, traffic stops, and checkpoints during the surge.
The mayor instructed all city departments to safeguard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarised immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government”, reported AP.
When asked at a news conference about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders,” Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
Johnson also prohibited Chicago police from wearing face coverings to hide their identities, a tactic widely adopted by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers since the Trump administration took office this year, reported AP.
The federal surge into Chicago could begin as early as September 5 and last roughly 30 days, according to two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity about plans not yet made public.
The officials described the crackdown as part of a broader effort to expand federal law enforcement presence in major Democratic-run cities, similar to the operation in Los Angeles this summer.
Unlike the recent federal policing operation in Washington, DC, the Chicago plan is not expected to involve the National Guard or the military and will focus solely on immigration, rather than a broader crime-fighting campaign, the officials said.
Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the strongest rules in the country against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, often putting them at odds with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Johnson’s executive order builds on the city’s longstanding position, noting that neither Chicago nor Illinois officials were consulted about the federal presence, and demanding that Trump stand down on the plans.
He criticised Trump sharply during the news conference, accusing the president of “behaving outside the bounds of the Constitution” and seeking a federal presence in blue cities as retribution against political rivals.
“He is reckless and out of control,” Johnson said. “He’s the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country.”
In response, the White House maintained that the deployment of federal agents was aimed at “cracking down on crime.”
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticise the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email on Saturday.
(With AP inputs)
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