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Illinois sues to block Trump’s National Guard deployment to Chicago

The Dirksen Federal Courthouse is pictured in Chicago. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Hannah Meisel)

CHICAGO — Illinois and Chicago filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block the Trump administration’s planned deployment of National Guard troops to the state — a move Gov. JB Pritzker called an “invasion.”

Trump pushed forward with the plan to activate hundreds of National Guard soldiers, including some from Texas, despite monthslong opposition from state and local leaders, as well as objections from civic and business groups in the city.

“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” Pritzker said in a statement Sunday night. “It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”

Read more: Over Pritzker’s objections, Trump sending 300 National Guardsmen to Chicago, governor says

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deploy troops to Illinois to protect federal immigration officers and facilities. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, a near-west suburb of Chicago, has been the site of several clashes between ICE agents and demonstrators in recent weeks.

But Pritzker, who said Saturday that he refused the Trump administration’s “ultimatum” to activate the National Guard himself, has insisted there is no emergency necessitating guardsmen on the ground. He also warned that White House officials would use any conflict between immigration agents and civilians as a “pretext” for military occupation.

“It will cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police,” the lawsuit said.

The suit, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, names Trump, Noem and Hegseth as defendants.

Texas National Guard also activated

Illinois filed its lawsuit hours after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will send 400 guardsmen to cities around the country, including Chicago, and after a federal judge in Oregon blocked National Guard deployments to Portland.

The order is “effective immediately for an initial period of 60 days” and subject to extension, according to the memo, signed by Hegseth. It comes a day after Pritzker confirmed Trump’s intention to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.

“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 lawsuit reads. “To guard against this, foundational principles of American law limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs. Those bedrock principles are in peril.”


Lawsuit Illustration

The opening paragraph of Illinois’ lawsuit against the federal government argues that the “foundational principles of American law” that limit the president’s powers to involve the military in domestic affairs are at risk. (Capitol News Illinois illustration with highlight added)

The promised deployment comes as ICE has ramped up activity in Chicago and its suburbs as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has so far resulted in more than 800 arrests according to the Department of Homeland Security.

There have also been two shootings since the clashes began. On Saturday, the governor called the administration’s National Guard activation a “manufactured performance” and not about protecting public safety.

Though the Trump administration insists ICE is targeting undocumented immigrants who have criminal backgrounds, reports have mounted of agents arresting those with no history of illegal activity, detaining children along with their parents and even handcuffing U.S. citizens and children with zip ties. Immigrant and civil rights groups have alleged ICE is arresting people without warrants in violation of a federal consent decree.

The lawsuit also alleges ICE activity in Chicago and its suburbs has already subjected Illinois “to serious and irreparable harm.”

Read more: ‘We are not backing down’: Feds ramp up immigration raids in Chicago area | DHS Secretary Noem defends ICE tactics in second Illinois visit

“It also creates economic harm, depressing business activities and tourism that not only hurt Illinoisians but also hurt Illinois’s tax revenue,” the complaint said.

That argument echoes one made by a group of Chicago business and civic groups over the weekend.

“National Guard troops on our streets, like those reportedly being ordered here by the federal government, have the potential to sow fear and chaos, threatening our businesses’ bottom lines and our reputation,” the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Civic Federation said in a joint statement Saturday.

Read the lawsuit here.

Order violates states’ rights

Attorney General Kwame Raoul argues the troop deployment violates Illinois’ rights as sovereign state to carry about its own law enforcement, as well as 1878 Posee Comitatus Act that bans the military from participating in domestic law enforcement.

The lawsuit also claims the Trump administration failed to meet any criteria that could allow the president to federalize the National Guard. The president can federalize the National Guard to stop a foreign invasion, when the president can’t execute the laws of the country or to stop a rebellion.

Raoul and state leaders have argued for weeks that Trump would use protests in Broadview as a “flimsy pretext” to claim a rebellion.

Read more: Pritzker says feds seeking Chicago troop deployment. ‘What I have been warning of is now being realized’

Several protestors have been arrested near the facility in recent weeks on charges of assaulting officers. Federal agents have sprayed tear gas and fired nonlethal ammunition into crowds that have gathered there.

Over the weekend, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot a woman on the city’s Southwest Side in a confrontation with protesters. Prosecutors eventually charged the woman and another protestor with attempting to “assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, agents fired “defensive shots” when they saw the woman was allegedly “armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” and she was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment before she was charged.

Further, the lawsuit argues the Trump administration has entirely manufactured any public safety crisis in Illinois that would require military intervention. It cites a 2013 social media post by Trump, two years before he announced his candidacy for president, that suggested the military should be deployed to Chicago. It lists several other derogatory comments Trump made about the city, state and their leaders over the years, including as president.


Social Media Posts

Illinois’ lawsuit against the federal government includes several posts that President Donald Trump has made about the city over a period of at least 12 years. (Screenshots from Illinois’ lawsuit against the federal government)

Read more: As Trump declares ‘we’re going in,’ Pritzker says ‘terror and cruelty is the point’

The lawsuit argues that animosity culminated last week with Trump claiming during a speech to military generals that there was an “invasion from within” and suggesting cities like Chicago should be used as “training grounds” for the military.

How soldiers will be deployed

The lawsuit includes new details about how federal officials communicated with state leaders and gave Pritzker an ultimatum.

DHS sent a memo to the Illinois National Guard on Sept. 28 stating troops “would integrate with federal law enforcement operations, serving in direct support of federal facility protection, access control, and crowd control.”

On Saturday morning, Illinois National Guard Adjutant General Rodney Boyd received a formal email from the Defense Department National Guard Bureau saying Trump asked for at least 300 soldiers, and if Boyd did not activate them within two hours, Hegseth would federalize them. Boyd responded that Pritzker declined to activate the guard. Defense officials sent a new memo late Saturday saying the guard was federalized.

Illinois National Guard leaders received another memo on Sunday informing them soldiers from Texas would be sent to Chicago beginning Monday.

Read more: As Illinois congressional delegation seeks answers, ICE cancels meeting

Abbott, a Republican and ardent Trump supporter, has been a frequent foil of Pritzker, bussing thousands of asylum-seeking migrants from the border to Chicago in 2023 and 2024 and criticizing the Illinois governor for welcoming Texas Democratic legislators who fled their state this summer amid a partisan redistricting fight. He said in a social media post that Pritzker “can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let the Texas Guard do it.”

Prior to this year, the last time a president federalized a state’s National Guard without a request from a state’s governor was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent federal troops to protect civil rights protesters in Alabama without the cooperation of segregationist Gov. George Wallace.


Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

California, Oregon sue to block Portland deployment, Trump adds Texas

6 October 2025 at 13:11
Federal police push towards a crowd of demonstrators at an ICE processing facility south of downtown Portland on Sat., Oct. 4, 2025. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Federal police push towards a crowd of demonstrators at an ICE processing facility south of downtown Portland on Sat., Oct. 4, 2025. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

California on Sunday joined Oregon and the city of Portland in suing over the Trump administration’s latest attempt to deploy federal troops to an American city.

More than 100 members of the California National Guard, on orders from President Donald Trump, flew to Oregon overnight against the wishes of elected leaders in both states, and without those leaders’ knowledge. More are expected.

“At the direction of the President, approximately 200 federalized members of the California National Guard are being reassigned from duty in the greater Los Angeles area to Portland, Oregon to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property,” said Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson.

The move came just hours after Oregon and Portland won a temporary restraining order against Trump’s attempt to deploy 200 Oregon Guard members to Portland. Federal Judge Karin Immergut — a Trump appointee — said on Saturday that the federal government was violating the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which effectively guarantees that states retain police power within their borders.

Immergut scheduled an emergency hearing at 7 p.m. Pacific time Sunday on a second restraining order, but a public access line for the hearing still wasn’t live by 7:30. Shortly before the hearing was scheduled to begin, plaintiffs filed with the court a Sunday memo from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering 400 Texas National Guard troops to mobilize to Oregon, Illinois and other locations.

Kotek and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker both said they received no explanation from the federal government about that order. It’s unclear how many Texas soldiers would be sent to each location and what mission they would carry out, Kotek added.

“This is a continuation and escalation of the president’s dangerous, un-American misuse of states’ National Guard members and hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” Kotek said.

In her Saturday opinion, Immergut also found that protests at an ICE processing facility in Portland were not by any definition a “rebellion” nor do they pose the “danger of a rebellion.”

“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote in her opinion. “Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation.”

Late Saturday, attorneys for the federal government filed a notice that they would ask the  Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to put a halt on her order. On Sunday Oregon’s Attorney General Dan Rayfield in turn filed a motion opposing the federal request, saying the issue could be decided by Immergut as early as Monday.

“What was unlawful yesterday is unlawful today. What was unlawful with the Oregon National Guard is unlawful with the California National Guard. The judge’s order was not some minor procedural point for the president to work around like my 14-year old does when he doesn’t like my answers,” Rayfield said at a news conference late Sunday afternoon. He was joined by Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson.

If the stay is denied, Oregon troops will be sent home from Camp Rilea in Warrenton, where they’ve been waiting for about a week under orders from Trump and U.S. Northern Command, a joint federal military command based in Colorado.

“They are pawns in this situation, political pawns in this situation. And I would like to send our troops home to their families, to their jobs,” Kotek said.

The newly arrived California Guard troops are currently waiting at Camp Withycombe in Happy Valley, Kotek said, and she expects 99 more will come to the camp Sunday about 20 miles from the ICE processing facility where mostly small and peaceful protests have gone on for months. If they are ordered to the ICE facility Sunday night where protests are ongoing, Kotek said, she cannot do anything to stop it absent a court order. Oregon, California and Portland also asked the federal district court on Sunday for a Temporary Restraining Order barring those troops from being activated, which could take several days to be decided by Immergut.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement early Sunday that up to 300 soldiers were being sent to Oregon on Trump’s orders. Those troops are also under the orders of U.S. Northern Command. Kotek said she does not know what their mission is, and Trump and his administration have not communicated with her at all about the deployment.

“This afternoon, I sent a message to Northern Command, directing them to obey the Oct. 4 court ruling from yesterday and take no further action regarding Oregon,” Kotek said. “I also directed that those troops that will be at Camp Withycombe should be restricted to that facility and that the California National Guard troops should be sent home as soon as possible.”

Protests have continued outside the ICE facility in Portland, with about 100 people on the streets Saturday night.

At one point during the evening, federal agents used chemical irritants to push protesters a block away from the facility onto city street, far from the federal property where the officers’ enforcement authority is limited.

Unknown individuals were also allowed onto the property by federal officials to film cell phone videos from the ICE building’s roof, as protestors were sprayed with chemical gases indiscriminately.

A Portland Police spokesperson said local law enforcement were not aware of or assisting with the federal agents’ actions.

The ramping up of federal pressure on Portland has coincided with a similar display of force in Chicago over the past few days. During a speech to military officials last week, Trump said he wanted to use Democratic cities as “training grounds” for the military.

Wilson, Portland’s mayor, said the actions by federal troops at the ICE facility Saturday evening were “beyond the pale.”

“We saw unjustified uses of force; We saw the shoving of peaceful veterans and elderly people to the ground; Indiscriminate use of impact munitions to disperse an otherwise peaceful crowd; Indiscriminately discharging pepper spray. We saw a sniper on the roof of the ICE facility,” he said at the news conference. He said the city would file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Department.

“I’m so disappointed that we’ve had to spend our valuable time on this matter. We have so many hard and important challenges in Portland and in Oregon and the United States, and this is a situation that we didn’t ask for,” Wilson said. “It certainly wasn’t invited.”

Editor-in-Chief Julia Shumway contributed to this report. 

This story was originally produced by Oregon Capital Chronicle, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

Trump headlines Arizona memorial service for Charlie Kirk at packed stadium

22 September 2025 at 01:20
Erika Kirk joins U.S. President Donald Trump onstage during the memorial service for her late husband, conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona.  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Erika Kirk joins U.S. President Donald Trump onstage during the memorial service for her late husband, conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona.  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and several Cabinet officials spoke at a five-hour memorial ceremony Sunday in Arizona for the late conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, whom Republicans are mourning as a friend and crediting as a force behind Trump’s second presidency.

Trump told a packed stadium, “America loved Charlie Kirk.”

“It is agonizing and unthinkable to say goodbye to a patriot whose heart still had so much to give,” Trump said.

The president described the suspected gunman who authorities say targeted Kirk as a “radicalized, cold-blooded monster.”

Trump praised Kirk and said it was the activist’s influence that helped him  choose Vance as vice president. Interspersed in his comments about Kirk, Trump aimed insults at what he described as “radical left lunatics,” promoted his anti-crime campaign and teased a forthcoming announcement from the administration regarding autism. 

Vance spoke about his friendship with Kirk and attributed the electorate’s swing to conservatism to Kirk’s outreach, saying Kirk “changed the course of American history.”

Vance joined Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi in recent days calling for consequences for Americans who criticized Kirk following his death. During his remarks at the memorial, Vance said he saw “the very worst parts of humanity” in comments and social media posts.  

The memorial service is held for conservative political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at an event during his
The memorial service is held for conservative political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at an event during his “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recounted meeting Kirk a decade ago when “he was building a movement.”

“I still have this sticker (that reads) ‘Big Government Sucks,’” Hegseth said, recalling an early campaign slogan for Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk co-founded in 2012.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, said those devoted to Kirk will “defeat the forces of darkness and evil.”

“You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk. You made him immortal,” Miller said.

Kirk’s wife Erika Kirk confirmed she will now sit at the helm of Turning Point USA as the nonprofit’s CEO after several speakers who heralded the organization’s future alluded to the change.

In an emotional speech, she told those in attendance that she has forgiven the suspected shooter.

“I forgive him because it was what Christ did. It is what Charlie would do, the answer to hate is not hate,” Erika Kirk said

During his remarks, Trump jokingly apologized to Erika because he said he “can’t stand” his opponents.

Kirk “did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with him. I hate my opponents and don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry, Erika,” Trump said.

Musk, members of Congress in attendance

The memorial service began at 11 a.m. Mountain time at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which seats upwards of 60,000.

A large painting of Kirk, who was fatally shot 11 days ago at age 31, was displayed on stage. Large LED screens played videos and displayed photos of the activist, who was very influential among Republicans and conservatives.

A seven-piece band backed Christian singer Chris Tomlin as Trump administration officials walked onto the floor of the stadium. Cameras captured the entrances of Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All delivered speeches.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a major donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign and the former leader of Trump’s government efficiency project, entered the stadium to cheers, according to CNN. Cameras caught Trump and Musk shaking hands and apparently speaking while seated together prior to Trump’s remarks.

Current and former U.S. senators and representatives were among members of the audience, including former Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz. 

A U.S. military color guard displayed flags during the national anthem.

The memorial service was livestreamed and is available on C-SPAN.

Journalists outside the stadium reported thousands of people lining up early hoping to attend the ceremony. 

Kirk was fatally shot by a suspected lone gunman on Sept. 10 while he was speaking at Utah Valley University, according to authorities, who are seeking the death penalty. NBC reported Saturday that law enforcement officials have not found any link between Kirk’s shooting and left-wing groups.

Utah native Tyler Robinson, 22, is charged on seven counts, including aggravated murder, violent offense in the presence of a child and witness tampering. 

Authorities say Robinson sent text messages about “hatred” to his roommate following the shooting. Charging documents say Robinson’s parents recounted their son’s recent interest in LGBTQ rights and that he had started to “lean more to the left.”

Charlie Kirk called a ‘martyr’

Speakers praised Kirk’s work and at numerous points during the ceremony referred to him as a “martyr” for the conservative movement and Christianity.

Far-right YouTube commentator Benny Johnson referred to Kirk’s “revival spirit” and influence in spreading a Christian worldview.

“Charlie Kirk is a martyr in the true Christian tradition. You take out a tyrant, his power goes away. You cut down a martyr, his power grows,” Johnson said.

Johnson called out Trump administration officials in the crowd as “rulers of our land.”  

“May we pray that our rulers here, rightfully instituted and given power by our God, wield the sword for the terror of evil men in our nation, in Charlie’s memory. I want to live in a country where the evil are terrified, and where the good and the faithful and the moral people of our nation can live in peace, debate in peace, disagree in peace and start families in peace.”

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said she owed her political career to Kirk, who hired her to do outreach to young Hispanic voters.

“These were the sparks that lit the path for me on the eve of my departure to medical school to decide to change course and join TP USA, where I could help Charlie battle the socialist indoctrination on college campuses,” Luna said.

The U.S. House passed a resolution Friday honoring Kirk, supported by all Republicans and 95 Democrats.

Presidents and memorial services

It is notable for a sitting president, vice president and multiple Cabinet members to deliver remarks at a memorial service for a private citizen. Trump ordered flags lowered after Kirk’s death.

Trump spoke, along with Republican congressional leaders, at the U.S. Capitol in 2018 at a memorial for the late evangelist Billy Graham, who had relationships with U.S. presidents going back decades, with Graham lying in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. Trump ordered flags at half-staff.

President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy for the nine victims of the racially motivated mass shooting at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Notably, Obama spontaneously sang “Amazing Grace.” Obama did not order flags lowered following the massacre.

Kirk maintained professor watch list, hosted podcast

Kirk was born in 1993 in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.

He co-founded Turning Point USA aiming to mobilize conservative youth and young adults on high school and college campuses. 

Kirk toured campuses across the U.S. speaking on contemporary hard-right topics, including anti-LGBTQ positions and encouraging young women to retreat from careers and return to the home. 

Among the organization’s projects was the “Professor Watchlist” that published the names of professors across the country in searchable format by categories including “anti-Christian views,” “feminism,” “climate alarmist” and “racial ideology,” according to its web page.

Kirk hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” a successful daily radio show and podcast. Devoting an entire episode in July to the Jeffrey Epstein case, Kirk was among those in Trump’s voter base to urge the president to release more information about the federal investigation into the late financier and convicted sex offender.  

Kirk’s work garnered attention beyond the United States. Rev. Rob McCoy, Kirk’s pastor, recounted a recent trip to South Korea 

“Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus,” McCoy told the crowd.

Turning Point USA Inc., which has been tax exempt since 2014, reported $84.9 million in revenue in 2024, according to the organization’s publicly available 990 tax forms published on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.

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