WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chicago businessman Willie Wilson will testify on Tuesday morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding crime in the city and why the National Guard should come to Chicago.

What we know:

In a press release, Wilson stated that Chicago has a “public safety crisis.” Wilson blamed democratic leaders for failing to protect Chicago residents from crime. 

Wilson claimed, “There are more people dying on the streets of Chicago than those killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” continuing that between 2017 and 2024, Chicago averaged 652 homicides per year.

Wilson claimed that Austin, Garfield Park, and Lawndale neighborhoods in Chicago have not seen a reduction in violence.

“The National Guard can help save lives and stabilize communities,” Wilson said.

Big picture view:

This comes as President Donald Trump sent the National Guard to Memphis earlier this month, while also renewing his promise to send the National Guard to Chicago regardless of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s pushback.

“I’m going to go to Chicago early, against Pritzker. Pritzker is nothing. If Pritzker is smart, he’d say ‘please come in.’ Over the last week and a half, 11 people in Chicago were killed, murdered, and 38 were shot,” Trump said. “Chicago is a death trap…” 

Asked repeatedly whether the White House plans to send the National Guard or federal agents such as the FBI or ATF, officials have not provided an answer.

The other side:

Pritzker said he is prepared to take President Donald Trump to court if the White House follows through on threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago.

“We’re going to immediately go to court,” Pritzker said. “If National Guard or other military troops are sent to, deployed to the city of Chicago, immediately go to court. So that’s going to be our first line of defense is getting a court to issue a TRO (temporary restraining order) or other injunction against that activity.”

In an opinion piece published in The New York Times, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Chicagoans “love and defend our city fiercely,” and don’t need “an occupation” of armed troops.

He pointed to a record-low homicide rate this summer, the lowest since the 1960s, as evidence that the city’s approach is working.

“Sending in the National Guard is the wrong solution to a real problem,” Johnson wrote. “If President Trump had listened to the city’s leaders, he would recognize that Chicago just experienced record-low homicide numbers, making this the safest summer since the 1960s.”

Johnson acknowledged that even at lower levels, violence remains unacceptable, noting his own family has experienced its effects firsthand in the West Side Austin neighborhood.