DHS pressures Illinois officials as National Guard surge looms for Chicago

The Department of Homeland Security is keeping the pressure on Illinois leaders amid a looming National Guard and federal immigration enforcement surge in Chicago, as Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker says it would be a possible “invasion.” 

President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that he’ll send the feds into Chicago after the federal takeover of Washington, D.C. Numerous reports have suggested that immigration authorities could be stationed in the region as part of the operation.

“He can talk about what a great job he’s doing as governor, but he’s failing those families who will no longer have their child with them, their mother or their father, or their cousin, aunt and uncle, that are gone forever because of the violence that’s happening in Chicago,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” of Pritzker, saying that leaders need to be working with the administration on crime.

ILLINOIS DEMOCRAT LEADERS BLAST TRUMP PUSH TO SEND NATIONAL GUARD TO CHICAGO

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, center, speaks; flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson, right. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“They don’t even honor our detainers in Chicago,” the secretary added, as detainers play a key role in keeping an individual behind bars so they can be transferred from local to federal custody. In a post on Tuesday, DHS said “it is DISGUSTING” that the governor “chooses to fight for the violent illegal alien killers in Chicago instead of his American constituents.”

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The federal government can technically have a degree of oversight over the capital city’s police force, but there are now National Guard troops and federal agencies like ICE and the FBI on the streets of D.C. in an effort to curb crime, including immigration-related arrests. 

“At least 54 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, 8 people were killed. The last two weekends were similar. Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday. 

TRUMP’S WEEK SHAPED BY CRIME AGENDA, POTENTIAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT TO CHICAGO

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks in Quito, Ecuador in July 2025. (Getty Images/Alex Brandon)

“Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC. Chicago will be safe again, and soon. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Fox News Digital reported that various serious criminal arrests by DHS have already been made in the Chicago area since Trump took office in January, including illegal immigrants convicted of homicide and sexual crimes against children. 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, is already taking strong measures to limit federal influence in the city, including signing an Executive Order constricting the ability of local police to work with federal authorities.

GOV. PRITZKER SAYS TRUMP TRYING TO ‘MANUFACTURE A CRISIS’ AS ADMIN PLANS NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT TO CHICAGO

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) conduct a traffic stop near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. on Aug. 14, 2025.  (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

“This executive order makes it emphatically clear that this president is not going to come in and deputize our police department,” Johnson said at a news conference.

“We will protect our Constitution, we will protect our city, and we will protect our people,” he continued. “We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents.”

On Friday, Pritzker dubbed the possibility of troop deployment to the city an “invasion.”

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“It’s clear that, in secret, they’re planning this. Well, it’s an invasion with U.S. troops, if they, in fact, do that,” Pritzker told CBS’ Ed O’Keefe. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Pritzker and Johnson.

Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck, Anders Hagstrom and Emma Bussey contributed to this report.