The Texas National Guard is expected to be deployed Wednesday night to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center near Chicago, law enforcement sources told ABC Chicago station WLS.
It will be the first deployment of the Texas National Guard to the Chicago area since guard members arrived in Illinois on Monday night.
According to WLSThe Illinois National Guard Joint Force Headquarters was informed Tuesday that the Texas National Guard’s mission will be to provide security for the ICE processing facility in Broadview, a community southeast of Chicago, beginning Wednesday night, but no further details were provided.
The Broadview facility has been the site of recent anti-ICE protests. On September 30 press conferenceBroadview officials accused ICE of endangering first responders, residents and protesters near an ICE facility by using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against protesters.
News of the Texas National Guard deployment comes as President Donald Trump is escalating a war of words with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. The president suggested in a social media post Wednesday morning that they “should be in jail” for what he said was their refusal to protect ICE agents.
“Illinois will not allow the Trump administration to continue its authoritarian march without resistance,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday as Texas National Guard troops appeared at an Army Reserve training center in the Chicago suburb of Elwood.
President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, October 7, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
“We will use every lever at our disposal to stop this power grab because military troops should not be used against American communities,” Pritzker said.
The military deployment sparked outrage among Democratic leaders.
“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”
Trump responded Wednesday on social media.
“The mayor of Chicago should be in jail for failing to protect ICE agents!” wrote the president. “Governor Pritzker too.”
Johnson responded in a social media post on Wednesday, writing, “This is not the first time Trump has tried to wrongfully arrest a black man. I’m not going anywhere.”
Military personnel in uniform, wearing the Texas National Guard patch, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Oct. 7, 2025, in Elwood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Erin Hooley/AP
Pritzker also reacted to Trump’s post, writing on social media Wednesday: “I won’t back down.”
“Trump is now calling for the arrest of the elected representatives who control his power,” Pritzker said. “What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
While speaking to reporters at a rally Wednesday afternoon for federal workers protesting the government shutdown, Pritzker called Trump “insane, literally. Unhinged.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker answers questions about increased immigration enforcement and the president’s call for him and Mayor Johnson to be jailed at a rally by federal workers protesting the government shutdown, in Chicago, Oct. 8, 2025.
WLS
“This is someone who is so insecure that he lashes out, pretending he can arrest people for no reason. You can’t. He’s not going to do it,” Pritzker said.
“WAD. “Trump always chickens out,” Pritzker added, using the acronym that became a popular meme among Trump critics over the summer when the president made tariff threats and then reversed them.
The back-and-forth between Illinois leaders, both Democrats, came after Trump conditionally threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Chicago. The law, which dates back to 1807, empowers the president to deploy the army nationwide and federalize National Guard units to suppress civil unrest, insurrections or armed rebellions against the federal government.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, Trump said he did not yet see the need to use the Insurrection Act, but that “if I had to enact it, I would, if they were killing people and the courts were holding us back, or the governors or mayors were holding us back.”
Meanwhile, the Texas National Guard has been spotted at an Army Reserve training center in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, ABC News has learned.
Groups of soldiers were seen walking the grounds of the training center in Elwood, with most of the troops apparently arriving Monday night, according to ABC News WLS station in Chicago.
Pritzker said at a news conference Monday that over the weekend he called on Abbott “to immediately withdraw his support for this decision” to send members of the Texas National Guard to Chicago.
Earlier Tuesday, Abbott had responded to Pritzker on social media, saying, “I fully authorized the president to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure the safety of federal officials.”
The deployment sparked outrage from Democratic leaders.
“Donald Trump declared war on Chicago. That’s what he did. What the Trump administration is doing is intentionally fomenting chaos,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The federal government is out of control. This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.”
In their lawsuit filed Monday, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago asked a judge to block the Trump administration’s deployment of military troops to Chicago.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state’s leadership has fallen out of favor with a president,” the lawsuit says.
The fundamental principle that separates the military from domestic affairs is “in jeopardy” as President Trump seeks to deploy the National Guard to cities across the country, according to the lawsuit.
