Trump sends 300 troops to break Chicago protests, against state’s will

2 days ago 4

By Associated Press

October 5, 2025 — 4.35pm

US President Donald Trump authorised the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to protect federal officers and assets amid ongoing protests in Chicago on Saturday (Sunday AEDT), marking the latest escalation of his use of federal intervention in cities.

The same day, a similar mobilisation of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon was temporarily blocked after a federal judge found Trump was probably overstepping his legal authority in responding to relatively small protests near a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

Federal officers hold down a protester in Chicago, on Saturday, after protesters learnt that US Border Patrol had shot a woman on Saturday morning in Chicago.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson confirmed the president had authorised using the Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.

The Department of Homeland Security also acknowledged that federal agents had shot a woman on Saturday morning on the south-west side of Chicago. A statement from the department said it had happened after Border Patrol agents patrolling the area were “ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles”. It said no officers were seriously injured.

The woman who was shot, Marimar Martinez, was allegedly driving one of the vehicles and was allegedly armed with a semi-automatic weapon, DHS said. She was taken to hospital, but she was later discharged into the custody of the FBI.

The driver of another vehicle allegedly involved in the ramming, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, had also been apprehended by law enforcement, DHS said.

Trump has characterised both Portland and Chicago as cities rife with crime and unrest, calling the former a “war zone” and suggesting apocalyptic force was needed to quell problems in the latter. Since the start of his second term, he has sent or spoken about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore, Maryland; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans, Louisiana; and the Californian cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The governors of Illinois and Oregon see the deployments differently.

“This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker said in a statement. “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

Protesters stand and chant in the Brighton Park neighbourhood of Chicago on Saturday.

The deployment to Chicago comes after frequent rallies near an immigration facility outside the city, and federal officials reported the arrests of 13 protesters on Friday near an ICE processing facility in Broadview.

The sight of armed, camouflaged and masked Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous Chicago landmarks has amplified concerns about racial profiling. Many Chicagoans were already uneasy after an immigration crackdown had begun earlier this month, targeting immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas.

Federal Attorney-General Pam Bondi has issued a memo that also directs component agencies within the Justice Department, including the FBI, to help protect ICE facilities, including in Chicago and Portland.

Chicago Police Department officers stand in front of federal officers in the Brighton Park neighbourhood of Chicago on Saturday.

Oregon

Over recent months, Trump has called Portland “war-ravaged” and he has suggested the city is “burning down”. But local officials say many of his claims and media posts appear to rely on images from 2020, when demonstrations and unrest gripped the city following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek spoke to Trump in late September and said the deployment was unnecessary. She refused to call up any Oregon National Guard troops, so Trump did so himself in an order to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. That prompted the lawsuit from city and state officials.

On Saturday afternoon (Sunday AEDT), US District Court Judge Karin J. Immergut issued a ruling temporarily blocking the Portland deployment, saying the relatively small protests in the city did not justify the use of federalised forces and that allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.

“This country has a long-standing and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote. She later said: “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law.”

On Saturday, before the judge’s ruling was released, about 400 protesters had marched from a park to the Portland ICE detention facility. The group included people of all ages and races, families with children and retirees with walkers, the Oregonian reported. Federal agents used chemical crowd-control munitions, including tear gas canisters and less-lethal guns that sprayed pepper balls. They arrested at least six people as the group reached the ICE facility.

Tennessee, Louisiana, California

Trump has also sent federal troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, both Democrat cities in Republican states. These deployments have been welcomed by the relevant state governors.

Trump also deployed guard soldiers and active duty marines in Los Angeles during the summer over the objections of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who sued and won a temporary block after a federal judge found the president’s use of the guard was likely to be unlawful.

The Trump administration appealed, and the block was put on hold by a three-judge panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is still under way, but the panel has indicated it believes the administration is likely to prevail.

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