September 1, 2025
Both Mayor Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have presented a united front in resisting Trump’s overtures about crime in Chicago.
On Aug. 29, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order, titled “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” which is concerned with limiting any federal troops in the city to designated municipal policing roles and keeping Chicago’s citizens informed about any new deployments as well as their rights in the event of the federal government attempting to replicate what it is currently doing in Washington, D.C.
According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Naval Station Great Lakes, located near Chicago’s North Side is expected to be used as a staging ground for federal agents, but according to their sources, it is likely to be used as a command center but will not house any of those agents. Per the information Johnson has received, he expects troops to begin arriving in the city by Sept. 5.
Pursuant to the order, if the federal agents do stray from the same guidelines as the city’s police force, Johnson will enact legal action such as stripping the federal agents of their masks, making them wear body cameras at all times during any engagements with citizens, requiring them to wear identifiable items like badges and uniforms and pulling the support of the Chicago Police Department from federal or military units present in the city.
“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Johnson told reporters. “I would’ve preferred to work more collaboratively to pass legislation…but unfortunately we do not have the luxury of time. We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some kind of militarized activity by the federal government.”
Both Mayor Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have presented a united front in resisting Trump’s overtures about crime in Chicago—widely considered a racist dog whistle—considering crime in the city, as it has nationally, has been declining.
Despite this, Julian Davis Mortenson, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Michigan, explained that although Johnson’s executive order was “well thought out,” he has questions about the ability of a local government to hold federal troops to account.
“It’s [legally] important in that it insists state and local law enforcement are independent,” Mortenson told the outlet. “Assuming the law enforcement operation is valid and there’s not some limitation to the scope of the federal authority … I don’t think a state government’s suit seeking to impose municipal law on how law enforcement conducts their operations would do very well.”
Despite the questions from Mortenson, Johnson presented himself as a figure who is willing to take on an increasingly authoritarian and fascist federal government, telling reporters, “This executive order makes it emphatically clear this president is not going to come in and deputize our police department. We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want families ripped apart….And I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
Esiah Campos — a Lake County commissioner, working in concert with one of the aims to unmask federal agents, also called on state lawmakers to ban the practice statewide as well as mayors in Lake County to stand by their commitment not to help ICE harass their constituents.
“It hurts to see the base I drilled out of to house ICE and Homeland Security agents to terrorize our people. This is not a time for platitudes. Now is a time for action,” Campos said at an Aug. 29 press conference held in North Chicago’s Veterans Memorial Park.
RELATED CONTENT: Trump: ‘African-American Ladies Are Saying, ‘Please, President Trump, Come To Chicago,’ Clean Up Crime. Black Women: ‘We Didn’t Invite You’
