Uniformed soldiers appeared at the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility early Thursday morning, signaling a major escalation in President Donald Trump's federal deployment of National Guard troops to the Chicago area - a move that Illinois officials have condemned as unconstitutional and vowed to fight in court.
Footage obtained by NBC Chicago showed soldiers behind fencing at the suburban facility carrying shields, duffle bags, and tactical equipment. One Texas National Guard member was seen positioned on the building's roof, identifiable by the state insignia on his uniform. The U.S. Northern Command confirmed that roughly 500 troops from Texas and Illinois were activated for a 60-day mission "to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. government personnel performing federal functions."
City officials in Joliet said they were notified Tuesday that troops would also be stationed at the Army Reserve base in Elwood, 50 miles southwest of Chicago, where video captured dozens of trucks, temporary housing, and fencing being assembled. The deployment coincides with intensifying protests outside ICE facilities, where demonstrators and journalists have clashed with federal agents accused of firing rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds.
Federal Judge Sara Ellis said Wednesday that there was credible evidence protesters and the press were "at risk of injury" because of what she described as indiscriminate use of force by government agents. The judge is now overseeing a lawsuit filed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, seeking to block the National Guard deployment as a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act and the U.S. Constitution. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
"This has never happened before," Pritzker told MSNBC. "They're calling out troops onto the streets of a state that doesn't want them, and they're not even telling us where they're gonna go, what they're gonna do." The governor called Trump's actions "a chaotic and dangerous overreach" and urged the courts to intervene.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Trump defended the operation, saying it was necessary to protect federal employees and property. "We're doing this to keep our federal officers safe, to keep our federal buildings safe," Bondi said. "We're not gonna have it anymore from these thugs." The White House insisted the president had "exercised his lawful authority" to federalize National Guard units.
The deployment follows weeks of immigration raids under "Operation Midway Blitz," which Homeland Security officials said target "criminal unauthorized migrants." Local leaders, however, accused federal agents of escalating tensions through aggressive tactics, including the use of a Black Hawk helicopter to encircle an apartment building. Civil rights groups have filed lawsuits alleging a "pattern of extreme brutality" at the Broadview facility, citing video of a pastor being shot in the head with a pepper ball.
The arrival of troops in Chicago has transformed a local immigration dispute into a national test of presidential power and state sovereignty. Legal scholars say Trump's decision to send Texas National Guard units into Illinois without the governor's consent sits in a constitutional gray zone - one that could determine how far the White House can go in deploying force domestically.
If the courts uphold the move, it could create a precedent for federalizing state troops over local objections. But if the deployment is blocked, advisers close to Trump say he may invoke the Insurrection Act, granting him authority to use active-duty military forces on U.S. soil - overriding the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the military from civilian policing.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, one of the plan's chief architects, has reportedly urged Trump to move forward regardless of court opposition. "President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities like these Democrat leaders want to do," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
