Tough talk and threats of a lawsuit by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have not slowed preparations for an illegal immigrant roundup by the Trump administration in the Windy City.
According to an internal federal memo obtained by CBS News, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked the Department of Defense (DOD) to house roughly 250 federal agents and 140 vehicles at an Illinois military base in anticipation of of an expected increase in illegal alien arrests in the Chicago area.
CBS reported:
In a request for assistance to the Department of Defense, a top Homeland Security official indicated the Naval Station Great Lakes — the largest military base in Illinois and the Navy’s largest training station — would be used as a staging area to oversee “removal operations” in the metropolitan Chicago area targeting immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
The memo called for portions of the naval station to be used by Homeland Security agents as a command post and tactical operations center, citing the infrastructure at the base and its location near a highway. It also requested storage for medical supplies and less lethal munitions.
The station is located on Lake Michigan 38 miles north of downtown Chicago. Equipment and personnel began arriving there earlier this week, a source told the network.
The crackdown could last for weeks, suggested by the memo’s request to use the base for 30 days.
As Breitbart News reported last week, a showdown has been looming between President Donald Trump and Illinois Democrats.
Chicago Mayor Johnson has been consistently lambasting the Trump administration’s promise of enhanced immigration enforcement in his city. In a recent appearance on MSNBC Johnson provocatively urged Chicagoans to “rise up” in violence against federal law enforcement officers.
Last Saturday, the mayor issued an executive order demanding the president stand down on his intent to send troops to take on crime and illegal immigration in the Windy City, ordering police not to cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts.
Radical Illinois Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker has also warned the president against ramping up federal law enforcement in Chicago, specifically by dispatching military assets to keep the peace.
“The state of Illinois is ready to stand against this military deployment with every peaceful tool we have,” he said.
He’s threatened a lawsuit as part of that effort.
Other Democrats have jumped on the resistance bandwagon, including former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg who decried the possible use of the Naval Station for immigration enforcement:
President Trump also deployed the National Guard and U.S. Marines to quell rioting in Los Angeles earlier this summer after protests against illegal immigration arrests became violent.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
