In an attempt to push back against US President Donald Trump’s crackdown with a potential military deployment in the city, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an order on Saturday detailing how the city would resist against what he calls the Trump administration’s “out-of-control” plan to fill the country’s third-largest city with federal officers.
The order signed by Mayor Johnson, a Democrat, details that the Chicago Police Department will be blocked from providing any aid to federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge. The order directs the city agencies on how to deal with potential immigration enforcement actions.
“We do not need nor want an unconstitutional and illegal military occupation of our city,” said the Chicago mayor while directing all the departments in the city to protect the constitutional rights of the Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government.”
We can’t perfectly predict how an erratic and impulsive administration will act, so I am signing an executive order that directs all of our City’s departments to protect Chicagoans and not collaborate with federal overreach.https://t.co/rKq508a69G
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) August 30, 2025
Trump, who has already deployed about 2,000 National Guards to the country’s capital Washington DC, has threatened to extend the order and deploy National Guards along with other federal officers in Chicago, which he says is a “mess”. Reports suggest the Trump administration is also planning to deploy federal immigration agents in the city.
The order signed by Chicago Mayor Johnson has been described as “a publicity stunt” by a White House spokesperson, BBC reported. When the governor was asked during a press briefing about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders,” Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
The order passed by Chicago Mayor Johnson is the latest feud between the White House and Illinois state over violent crime and immigration. The order states that the Trump administration and federal agents “stand down from any attempts to deploy the US Armed Forces” in Chicago.
