Federal Law Enforcement Activity in Chicago, Portland, and Memphis
Chicago, Portland, and Memphis are all undergoing a takeover of their cities by National Guard troops. On Sunday September 28th, armed agents patrolled the streets of Chicago. On top of that, 200 national guardsmen are being called up to Portland by President Donald Trump. These actions have been opposed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as well as Oregon Governor Tina Kotek. Additionally, troops have now been deployed in Memphis, Tennessee, to patrol those streets as well. This is a part of a recent trend by the Trump administration to combat a “war-torn” and “dangerous” threat and environment that these cities have supposedly turned into.
In Portland, a 60-day deployment of National Guard troops was ordered by President Trump to thwart “violent protests” that threaten immigration facilities, claiming that they are a form of rebellion against the authority of the government. This has faced legal pushback from Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who filed a lawsuit against Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and others. Trump’s message about Memphis is one more surrounding crime in general, wanting to crack down on carjackings and homicides. This is seen as a thinly veiled way of persecuting immigrants by many in Memphis, who are offering a fierce pushback to Trump’s orders.
This addition of law enforcement comes in the midst of ICE agents having imposed themselves onto most major cities in the U.S. Protesters outside of an ICE building in Chicago were met with rubber bullets and tear gas. These escalated conflicts are the main reasoning behind the Trump administration’s focus on these cities. President Trump insists on the necessity of these troops because they can protect those working at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, where these protests are happening. However, many have spoken out claiming the opposite, pointing out the examples of protests in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, where violence came out in droves only once a large number of armed enforcement officers arrived and escalated situations, rather than deescalating smaller conflicts and protests.
Each of these cities has seen different, but somewhat similar, treatment by the Trump Administration and the Department of War. In Chicago, Gregory Bovino, a central agent to Trump’s crackdown on immigration in Los Angeles, indicated that “several arrests” had been made.
