Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order instructing all city departments not to collaborate with the federal government, pre-empting a possible militarization of the city, which the Donald Trump Administration has threatened in order to combat crime.
“Today I am signing an executive order that will launch the ‘Protecting Chicago’ initiative,” the Democratic mayor said at a press conference, where he explained that the measure mandates that “the Chicago Police Department will not collaborate with military personnel in police patrols or civilian immigration enforcement.”
Brandon Johnson thus responded to threats about a possible military deployment in Chicago recently threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, in the image of what he recently did in Washington D.C., also under a Democratic mayor.
This strategy, however, could be accompanied by an increase in raids against undocumented migrants.
“We don’t want to see tanks on our streets. We don’t want to see families torn apart. We don’t want to see grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents,” Brandon Johnson stressed.
And he added that the order instructs the Department of Law “to pursue any and all legal mechanisms to hold this Administration accountable for violating Chicago’s rights.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the move aligns with the interests of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, also a Democrat, and said he has been in contact with fellow Democrats in Los Angeles to find out what’s in store for Chicago.
In addition to the capital, the U.S. government has already deployed thousands of National Guard troops in Los Angeles during the outbreak of protests against immigration raids last June.
Trump is “the greatest threat to our democracy that the history of our country has ever experienced,” said Brandon Johnson in his speech, according to EFE.
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