Gov. Pritzker says Trump is calling up 300 Illinois National Guard members against his objections

Gregory Royal Pratt, Chicago Tribune on Oct 4, 2025

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CHICAGO — President Donald Trump is calling in 300 members of the Illinois National Guard over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections, the governor announced on Saturday.

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

The Trump administrations plans to “pull hardworking Americans out of their regular jobs and away from their families all to participate in a manufactured performance — not a serious effort the protect public safety,” Pritzker said.

The governor added “there is no need for military troops on the ground in the State of Illinois. State, county, and local law enforcement have been working together and coordinating to ensure public safety around the Broadview ICE facility, and to protect people’s ability to peacefully exercise their connotational rights. I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people.”

The Trump administration’s move comes amid “Operation Midway Blitz,” a mass deportation action that began Sept. 8 and has led to hundreds of immigrants being arrested. Trump officials say they are arresting “the worst of the worst” but they have also taken in noncriminal immigrants.