Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is making it clear: federal troops and militarized immigration crackdowns are not welcome in his city. Over the Labor Day weekend, Johnson signed the “Protecting Chicago” executive order, a directive aimed at resisting President Trump’s proposed National Guard deployment and expanded immigration enforcement operations.
The order comes as the Trump administration threatens that Chicago could be the next target after deploying soldiers to patrol Washington, D.C. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also announced that Chicago will see expanded ICE operations, with agents possibly staging from Naval Station Great Lakes.
At a rally on Monday, Johnson rebuked Trump’s threats in blunt terms.
“No federal troops in the city of Chicago. No militarized force in the city of Chicago,” he declared at the Workers Over Billionaires protest. “We’re going to defend our democracy in the city of Chicago. We’re going to protect the humanity of every single person in the city of Chicago.”
Johnson framed the standoff not just as a fight over crime reduction but as a battle over democracy and human dignity. “There are some people who believe that we don’t have the power to beat authoritarianism,” he said. “But I am also a history teacher as well. We have stood up for the interests of workers before, and we will do it again.
The Protecting Chicago Initiative establishes legal, procedural, and symbolic barriers against federal encroachment. It affirms that the Chicago Police Department will remain locally controlled and will not collaborate with federal military personnel on routine patrols or immigration enforcement, while directing the city’s Law Department to pursue every legal avenue to block federal actions deemed unconstitutional or unlawful.
The order also requires federal agents to follow municipal transparency rules, including the use of body cameras, visible agency identification, and a ban on mask-wearing during public encounters. In addition, it launches a citywide campaign to educate residents on their rights and prepare families in case of aggressive federal immigration raids.
“We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans,” Johnson said while signing the order. “We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents.”
Not everyone is aligned with Johnson’s approach. Alderman Ray Lopez (15th Ward) suggested the Guard could improve safety, saying, “We already work with the federal government on multiple levels. This would be an enhancement.” But Alderman Mike Rodriguez (22nd Ward) pushed back, warning that deploying troops would be “unacceptable, un-American and counterproductive to the public safety we want to bring to the city.”
Governor JB Pritzker has also stood with Johnson, rejecting Trump’s rhetoric and emphasizing local solutions. On social media, he fired back at Trump’s Truth Social posts: “Chicago doesn’t want you here.”
The backdrop to this fight is Chicago’s ongoing struggle with gun violence. Over the Labor Day weekend, more than 50 people were shot and at least seven killed, fueling Trump’s claims that the city is “the worst and most dangerous in the world.” He vowed, “I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC.”
But Johnson counters that the city is already making progress, citing drops in shootings and homicides over the past year, and that what Chicago needs isn’t soldiers, but investments in housing, education, and violence prevention programs.
He accused Trump of stripping $800 million from violence prevention efforts while now attempting to “militarize” the city.
For Johnson, the executive order is as much about drawing a line in the sand as it is about preparing the city. “This president continues to go well beyond the bounds of the Constitution,” Johnson said. “The extent to which our democracy is in peril right now—I’m going to do everything in my power as the mayor of this city to protect Chicagoans.”
As Trump escalates his threats and immigration operations loom, Chicago’s mayor is betting that a strong stance and a legally fortified executive order will keep his city from becoming a testing ground for federal overreach.
