A federal judge granted a request to temporarily block a National Guard deployment in Chicago, saying the move violates the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge April Perry ruled the Trump administration’s deployment of troops in Chicago violated the 10th and 14th amendments, as well as the nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws.
It was not immediately clear when the temporary restraining order will take effect and how long it will last. Perry said she plans to issue another ruling Friday on the case.
Perry called the federal government’s recount of recent events in Chicago and surrounding suburbs “simply unreliable,” saying in the last 48 hours four separate decisions by different neutral parties cast doubt on the Department of Homeland Security’s credibility.
“I don’t find any evidence of impeding actually happened,” Perry said, noting she has “found no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois.”
Perry referenced Alexander Hamilton in condemning the president’s actions.
“(The founders) would never believe that it would ever come to pass that one state militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution,” she said.
“I have found no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois,” she said.
The judge also questioned whether the National Guard had adequate training in de-escalation tactics.
Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law. It remains unclear if that will happen.
Earlier in the Thursday hearing, Perry had quizzed a Trump administration attorney on the role National Guard troops would play if deployed in Chicago to assist ICE agents with immigration enforcement, at one point questioning “where is the rebellion?”
Perry pressed Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton on whether National Guard troops would only be stationed around federal buildings or also in neighborhoods, schools and hospitals. Hamilton responded that troops also could be used to “protect ICE agents” in the field.
Perry called the Trump administration’s claims of a so-called rebellion “audacious” and questioned the information being used to deploy the guard.
“What if the DHS folks are not tethered to reality? Does that matter?” she said, asking “who are the rebels” and “are they well armed?”
Thursday’s hearing before Perry was over a request to block the deployment of Illinois and Texas Guard members in Illinois.
Chicago and Illinois filed a lawsuit on Monday to stop the deployments, calling them unnecessary and illegal. In a court filing in the lawsuit, the city and state say protests at a temporary ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement.”
Christopher Wells, a lawyer with the Illinois attorney general’s office, began Thursday’s hearing by urging Perry to stop the National Guard deployment that “threatens the careful balance of our Constitutional system.”
Hamilton characterized Chicago as beset by what he called “tragic lawlessness,” noting a recent confrontation in which two residents were accused of using their vehicles to ram into and box in a Border Patrol vehicle. One person was shot and wounded by a Border Patrol agent.
New video showed uniformed troops appearing to arrive at the Immigration Customs and Enforcement processing facility in suburban Broadview early Thursday morning, with soldiers seen behind a fenced area carrying shields, duffle bags and other equipment in and out of the building.
In a statement sent to NBC Chicago, the Village of Broadview confirmed that three vans carrying 45 members of the Texas National Guard arrived at the federal building late Wednesday night.
“During their patrols, Broadview police officers observed the vans parked in the rear of 2000 25th Ave. and all of the guards were sleeping,” the statement said. “We let them sleep undisturbed. We hope that they will extend the same courtesy in the coming days to Broadview residents who deserve a good night’s sleep, too.”
The Broadview facility has been the site of numerous protests and tensions between activists and masked, armed federal agents, with rubber bullets and chemical agents like tear gas deployed and barricades erected.
It marks the second ruling surrounding Chicago immigration enforcement Thursday.
In a separate hearing, federal agents were ordered — temporarily — by a federal judge to wear badges and were banned from using certain riot control weapons against peaceful protesters and journalists outside the Broadview ICE facility.
The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis restricts agents’ use of force, including pepper balls, rubber bullets and physical force such as pulling, shoving or tackling against protesters and journalists who don’t pose a serious threat to law enforcement.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump both defended the decision to federalize the National Guard during a press availability Wednesday.
“(We’re doing this to) keep our federal officers safe, to keep our federal buildings safe, (and) we’re not gonna have it any more from these thugs,” Bondi said.
The government has not yet responded to the two rulings.
