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Troops deploy in Chicago as US courts hears challenges
Five hundred US troops deployed in the Chicago area on Thursday as courts heard challenges to the use of the National Guard as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping crime and immigration crackdown.
In Chicago, a federal judge held a hearing on a bid by the Democratic-led state of Illinois and local leaders to prevent the use of soldiers in America's third-largest city.
Simultaneously, a three-judge appeals court panel in San Francisco heard a Trump administration challenge to a judge's order temporarily blocking the planned deployment of National Guard troops in Democratic-ruled Portland, Oregon.
Illinois and Oregon are not the first states to file legal challenges against the Trump administration's extraordinary domestic use of the National Guard.
Democratic-ruled California filed suit after the Republican president sent troops to Los Angeles earlier this year to quell demonstrations sparked by a crackdown on undocumented migrants.
A district court judge ruled it unlawful but the deployment was upheld by an appeals court panel.
The government argues that the troops are needed in Chicago to protect federal agents during immigration raids in the Democratic stronghold, which the Trump administration depicts in exaggerated and lurid terms as a "war zone."
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview "has been the target of actual and threatened violence," requiring "assistance from the Department of War," the Trump administration said in a court filing.
The Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and other local elected officials opposed to the deployment are seeking to "second-guess" the judgment of the president, it said.
An AFP journalist who visited the Broadview facility on Thursday saw a few National Guard members and ICE personnel milling about on other side of the fence.
About 15 protesters hurled insults, calling the agents "human traffickers" and "Nazis."
"Show your faces, you cowards!" they yelled. "Are your mommies proud of you?"
The deployment in Chicago features 200 National Guard troops from Texas and 300 from Illinois, the US Army Northern Command said. They have been mobilized for an initial period of 60 days.
- Insurrection Act -
Trump has said he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act -- which allows the president to deploy the military within the United States to suppress rebellion -- if courts or local officials continue "holding us up."
At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Trump repeated his claims that crime is rampant in Chicago and Portland.
"We've launched a historic campaign to take back our nation from the gangs and the street criminals, violent repeat offenders, illegal alien law breakers, domestic extremists and savage, bloodthirsty cartels," he said.
The Republican has been accused by critics of growing authoritarianism as he tries to fulfill his campaign promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
Raids by armed and masked federal agents have sparked allegations of rights abuses and illegal detentions.
Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle protests against ICE agents and street crime.
Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has called Trump "unhinged."
"He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: if you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me," the governor said Wednesday.
S.Lambert--JdB
