National Guard Troops Currently Protecting Federal Property in Chicago Area, Official Says
Greetings and welcome to the current developments in US politics. We begin with the report that a small number of National Guard troops has begun guarding government facilities in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Troop Information
An unit of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Chicago area, as stated by a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details that have not been made public.
The military personnel are in the urban area to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.
The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All five hundred personnel are under the military command and have been deployed for two months. The spokesperson wasn't able to immediately offer information about how the personnel were equipped.
Political Context
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, charging them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
"Chicago Mayor should be in prison for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"
Both Johnson and Pritzker are members of the Democratic party. Trump's remarks coincide with national guard troops have started deployment in the Chicago area at the direction of the federal administration, despite opposition from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- The president declared that the conflicting parties have accepted a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
- Reports about the Gaza agreement was praised by Republican lawmakers, who called on Trump to be given the Nobel Peace prize this week, but received with greater caution by Arab-American communities.
- During White House event, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'Habeas Corpus' and referred to Kristi Noem. In May, the secretary gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the core legal principle that requires that the government provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
- All of the participants who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the administration on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might more accurately described as partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers report on leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
- GOP senators voted down a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after Democrats tried to counter the administration's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness repeated Trump's inaccurate statement that large numbers of people have been murdered by political extremists in the Oregon city. The accurate count of killings by political activists in Portland is: one.