Texas National Guard Arrives in Illinois, Sparks Legal Showdown and Political Outcry

The Texas National Guard has arrived in a southwest Chicago suburb, confirmed on October 7, 2025, immediately escalating tensions with Illinois state and city leaders who have denounced the deployment as illegal and unconstitutional. The move comes as Illinois and Chicago officials filed a lawsuit to block the federalization and deployment of the troops.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have vociferously condemned the presence of the Texas National Guard. Governor Pritzker accused the Trump administration of an “authoritarian march” and using service members as “political props,” vowing to use “every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab.” Mayor Johnson stated he received no advance notice and declared the deployment “illegal, unconstitutional, it’s dangerous, it’s wrong.”

Footage from ABC Chicago station WLS showed Guard members at an Army Reserve Training Center on Tuesday, Oct. 7. This follows Texas Governor Greg Abbott sharing a photo on Monday of what he called the state’s “elite” National Guard boarding a plane. Abbott had earlier stated he “fully authorized the President to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials.”

The lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago argues that the foundational principle separating the military from domestic affairs is “in peril” as President Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard to cities nationwide. President Trump, speaking Monday, indicated he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act but would if “people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up.”

Governor Pritzker also cited a recent ICE raid in Chicago, claiming it was filmed for social media by federal authorities using Black Hawk helicopters and tactical agents, suggesting it was part of a playbook to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion” and create a pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act.

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