Chicago tells of escalating state violence, including murder, as it challenges the National Guard’s occupation

Chicago’s new lawsuit against the impending National Guard deployment charts a city besieged by disproportionate federal force, its residents outraged by the killing of an undocumented resident, the pain quietly and needlessly inflicted by federal law enforcement and the specter of further occupation.

Following Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Portland, the city and state have challenged President Trump’s deployment of the guard to quell what the administration describes as war-like unrest. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the mobilization of the Guard from Illinois and Texas to Chicago and Portland on Sunday. The move prompted an emergency hearing in the Portland case, in which a federal judge impeached Justice Department lawyers for “circumventing” her order blocking the deployment of the Oregon guard.

The Chicago lawsuit, filed Monday, chronicles escalating state violence meant to provoke a response the better to justify sending into the military.

“Among other things, Trump and Noem sent a surge of SWAT-trained federal agents to Illinois to use unprecedented, brute force tactics for civilian immigration enforcement; federal agents repeatedly photographed chemical weapons in groups that included media and legal observers outside the two Broadview targets, and dozens of other agents.” “And its significant consequences led to quite predictable protests.”

Department of Homeland Security Details Secretary Kristi Noem, on a visit to the lone ice facility near Chicago, chose to weave in and out through paths crowded with protesters, the better to provoke a confrontation with law enforcement. It includes images of armed police officers running down the Chicago River, supposedly through upscale sections of downtown. It tells of the killing of long-time resident and father Silvero Villegas Gonzalez by DHS officers, who initially claimed to be acting in self-defense (quickly calculated pamper).

Similar to Portland, modest protests at an ice processing center outside Chicago have been used as the primary pretext for military repression.

According to the sworn statement of the Broadview Police Chief who witnessed this behavior daily, “the use of chemical agents by federal agents at the ICE facility in Broadview was often abusive and indiscriminate.” Sometimes it’s used when the crowd is small like what they’re rolling in for, “Agents at BroadView are unlike anything you’ve seen before.”

Judge in the case It is said A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Attacking judges

Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller fired on Judge Karen Immergut, a Trump appointee, early Monday morning, calling for her second order, banning another National Guard deployment to Portland, “one of the most egregious and reckless violations of the constitutional order we have seen” and “the latest example of an unexciting effort to break through in 2024.”

Trump was weighing in against Immergut earlier in the day, complaining that he was not well served “by the people who pick the judges” and that “he” (Immergut is a woman) “should be ashamed of himself” (again, a woman).

“We have long since reached the point where Trump needs to publicly challenge these judges,” right-wing commentator Matt Walsh tweeted. “Some random federal judge has no authority to decide how and if troops are deployed. She is not the commander in chief. Ignore them and deploy them. It is time for a showdown with these activist judges.”

Opening day for judges

Monday marks the official start of the Supreme Court’s new term — a date that has become mostly ceremonial, given the increasingly heavy workload being conducted on the emergency schedule during all months of the year.

Tuesday features the first big culture war battle of the season, as the court will hear arguments against banning conversion therapy in Colorado. On Wednesday, it will hear a case involving Illinois accepting ballots that were prepared on Election Day, but received afterward.