Texas National Guard troops arrive in Joliet area
Members of the Texas National Guard have begun arriving at a U.S. Army Reserve facility in Chicago's far southwestern suburbs, where they're expected to participate in training before they are sent on their assignments to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and facilities.
On Tuesday afternoon, CBS News Chicago crews spotted National Guard troops dressed in camouflage with Texas National Guard patches walking around the U.S. Army Reserve Training Center in Elwood, near Joliet, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.
Several trailers have been set up as temporary living quarters. Several soldiers were seen moving in with bags of belongings; some holding rifles and carrying folding chairs, possibly for meetings or other trainings. Fencing was also put up around the facility late Tuesday.
Retired U.S. Army Major General Richard Hayes was the highest-ranking member of the Illinois National Guard. In his 30-plus-year career, he said he's never seen a National Guard from a different state federalized and then sent to another state.
"This is novel. It doesn't mean it's necessarily illegal, it's just different," he said, "As far as the soldiers are concerned, the Illinois National Guard, even the Texas National Guard, they don't get a say in whether they go or not go. It's not a political organization, they're just here to do what they're being asked to do."
State Representative Larry Walsh Jr. said he got word late Monday that the Elwood site would be the home base for the troops.
"This is a lot of political theater," he said. "There's a whole communication disconnect between the federal and local governments."
If federalized, the National Guard would take their orders from the federal government and not the state.
"If the courts later say it's not proper or not legal, then they'll stand down," Hayes said.
"I would ask the federal government and the administration, come on… let's just start working as adults," Walsh Jr. said.
Roughly 200 members of the Texas National Guard will deploy to Chicago this week, sources familiar with the operation told CBS News.
Members of the Texas National Guard are expected to begin their assignments in Chicago as soon as Wednesday, after receiving an operational brief, ahead of a federal court hearing on Thursday on a lawsuit filed by the state of Illinois and city of Chicago, which are seeking to block the troop deployment.
Military personnel in uniform, with the Texas National Guard patch on, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Elwood, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
Erin Hooley / AP
State and local leaders said they have largely been left in the dark about the troop deployment and given no details on the troops' mission.
Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, a Democrat, said her office was not notified by the Trump administration about the National Guard deployment in Elwood, including how many troops were being stationed there or how long the operation would last.
"The arrival of the National Guard by the Trump Administration is an aggressive overreach. Our federal government moving armed troops into our community should be alarming to everyone," she said in a statement. "I will be coordinating with local leaders to make sure we are doing everything in our power to protect the rights of our residents and the safety of everyone. Hopefully, the federal court hearing on Thursday will end this attack on our community."
The Illinois National Guard has also been ordered to report for training on Tuesday, although it's unclear if they'll also be stationed in Elwood.
The Trump administration has said members of the National Guard will be assigned to the protection of federal facilities and federal law enforcement personnel, including the ICE facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview, and in downtown Chicago.
On Monday evening, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted a photo to X Monday evening with a caption reading, "The elite Texas National Guard. Ever ready. Deploying now." The photo shows Texas National Guard members boarding a plane.
On Sunday evening, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said President Trump had ordered National Guard members from Texas to be deployed to Illinois.
In a statement, Pritzker said 400 members of the Texas National Guard will be deployed to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the U.S.
As members of the Texas National Guard were arriving in Illinois, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson – who has vehemently opposed the deployment – was asked about their mission.
"There is a process that the National Guard goes through before they're actually released into the streets of Chicago or anywhere," He said. "But what's really disturbing about all of this is that the National Guard, they have no policing authority or any policing powers. It's not what they're trained to do."
While a West Coast federal judge approved a temporary restraining order blocking Texas National Guard troops from deploying to Portland, Oregon, a federal judge in Chicago declined to immediately grant a similar request on Monday to halt the deployment in Illinois. The judge has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to rule on the request to block the deployment.
On Sunday, a memo obtained by CBS News from the Pentagon called for hundreds of National Guard troops to be sent to Illinois. Pritzker on Saturday said that the Trump administration intended to federalize 300 Illinois National Guard members after he was offered an ultimatum on troop deployment. The ultimatum by the Trump administration, according to Pritzker, was "call up your troops, or we will."
The Illinois National Guard members were not expected to be ready to deploy prior to Thursday's court hearing, sources said. Those personnel will undergo additional training, including civil disturbance training in the coming days, and be assigned necessary protective equipment.
"Bringing in Texas National Guard is really a vast overreach of the federal government here," former Illinois National Guard Adj. Gen. William Enyart said.
Enyart said that without roots in Chicago and a nuanced understanding of the area, troops from another state would be at a severe disadvantage.
"To bring in someone from 1,000 miles away, who doesn't have any of those contacts, who doesn't have any of that network developed, is absolutely a hazard to public safety," he said.
Pritzker has repeatedly declined to call up the guard during the period of increased immigration enforcement, the government has dubbed "Operation Midway Blitz." Pritzker has also accused the Trump administration, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, of intentionally sowing chaos in order to justify the deployment.
The Illinois Attorney General's team and Chicago city attorneys will be back in federal court this coming Thursday in an effort to stop the mobilization of troops.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the Village of Broadview, home of an ICE processing center that has drawn heated protests and confrontations, were to appear in front of a judge on Tuesday to argue for the removal of a fence the federal government put up outside an ICE facility on Beach Street in Broadview.
They said that the federal government did not get a permit for the fence and that it is illegal to block a public street. The judge in the case said they would rule on the village's bid to take down the fence in the next couple of days.
Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson could also see legal action soon regarding a protest curfew she enacted Monday night. She said village resources cannot keep up with repeated demonstrations outside the ICE processing center, so she is limiting gatherings there to be between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
"Let me be clear, I will always support the First Amendment and right of people to peacefully protest," Thompson said Monday. "But as mayor, I must also balance the right with the safety and well-being of Broadview residents and the businesses."
Nicole Sganga contributed to this report.
