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Mar 24, 2026

Chicago Mayor Issues Order To Resist Trump’s Crime Crackdown

Chicago Mayor Issues Order To Resist Trump’s Crime Crackdown

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order aimed at limiting the authority of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops, saying it was a response to President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy them to Illinois.

“We find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach,” said Johnson, a Democrat, during a press conference.

Johnson said the order directs the city’s law department to use “every legal mechanism” to block Trump’s potential deployment plan.

Johnson added later that he would use “every single tool that is at our disposal, and that includes the courts.”

“It’s an area in which at least there’s some semblance of check and balance in this country,” he said, per 

Johnson said the executive order lays out several additional directives beyond challenging Trump’s potential deployment plan. Among them are rules clarifying what, if any, assistance Chicago police officers may provide to federal law enforcement, as well as prohibitions on concealing their faces or covering the Chicago Police Department’s insignia while in uniform.

The mayor said these measures were designed to ensure transparency and accountability in the event of federal operations taking place in the city, NBC reported.

“This order affirms that the Chicago Police Department will not collaborate with military personnel on police patrols or civil immigration enforcement. We will not have our police officers, who are working hard every single day to drive down crime, deputized to do traffic stops and checkpoints for the president,” Johnson told the press conference.

“We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans,” he added.

Johnson’s order comes as President Trump has already deployed troops and federal law enforcement to Washington, D.C., and threatened to do the same in other cities, including Baltimore.

Democrats, meanwhile, have put themselves in the position of opposing the president’s crime-fighting efforts, which isn’t likely to play well at the polls during next year’s midterms. While they attempt to frame Trump’s efforts as federal overreach, in fact, the actions are being taken to enforce specific federal laws including those governing illegal immigration.

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