CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson filed a lawsuit Monday to block the Trump administration from deploying hundreds of National Guard troops from Illinois and Texas in Chicago and surrounding cities.

The legal challenge is the latest clash between Democratic-led states and the Trump administration over President Donald Trump’s so-called “federalization” of law enforcement, with governors in California, Oregon and others pursuing similar lawsuits.

State and city leaders are seeking both an emergency restraining order to immediately head off Trump’s attempts to deploy the National Guard troops in the state, and longer-term injunctive relief. They claim President Donald Trump plans “to use American soldiers to punish his political enemies.”

Illinois is looking for the courts to find the deployment of the National Guard “unconstitutional.”

The lawsuit comes one week after Pritzker and other state and local leaders held a press conference to share news of Trump’s request to authorize the National Guard troops for the stated purpose of “protecting ICE personnel and facilities.” It’s unclear whether the guard troops in question will be Illinois National Guard troops, or National Guard members from nearby states.

“What I have been warning of is now being realized,” Pritzker said Monday. “One thing is clear: none of what Trump is doing is making Illinois safer.”

“This is not about fighting crime or about public safety. This is about sowing fear and intimidation and division among Americans,” he said, vowing to fight “with everything that we have.”

The action from Illinois comes days after masked federal immigration officials were seen marching through Chicago’s downtown area in full tactical gear and masks.

Pritzker, who blasted the effort as an act of “authoritarianism,” noted that the immigration officers seen over the weekend appeared to be “carrying large weapons” and were spotted along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, along the Chicago River, and outside Millennium Park — all areas that are commonly frequented by tourists and residents alike.

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“This is not making anybody safer — it’s a show of intimidation, instilling fear in our communities and hurting our businesses,” Pritzker said on social media. “We cannot normalize militarizing American cities and suburbs,” he added.

Both have traded barbs with Trump and other senior administration officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, in recent weeks as it looked to enact its hard-line immigration enforcement priorities.

“No president can flout the Constitution,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul told reporters Monday. “The rule matters in the state of Illinois.”

Trump, for his part, took to social media over the weekend to take aim at what appeared to be an interaction between federal agents and protesters in the city of Broadview, Illinois, just outside Chicago.

“Border Patrol will take no nonsense!” Trump said.

Trump for months has threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Illinois as part of that effort, prompting heated criticism from Democrats in the state, including Pritzker, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who described the ICE agent presence in the city over the weekend as “another brazen provocation from the Trump administration” and one that “does nothing to make our city safer.”

Both have sharply condemned Trump’s immigration crackdowns and attempts to deploy federal troops into Democrat-led cities and states. They reiterated that claim yesterday, describing the effort as merely a “pretext” for deploying federal agents into Chicago and the surrounding areas.

The lawsuit comes as leaders in other Democrat-led states have moved to sue the Trump administration over his federalization crackdown.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield on Saturday announced they are suing the Trump administration over its deployment of National Guard troops, echoing Pritzker and Johnson’s argument that Trump lacked the legal basis to do so.

He argued on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump has “exceeded his authority” in calling up the troops, since there is not an invasion or rebellion in the U.S. or Oregon — or the two conditions by which the president can call up the National Guard against state objections.

“What’s going on in California, D.C., Memphis, potentially Illinois, and now Oregon — this normalization that you can use the U.S. military in our cities — that is un-American,” Rayfield said.

“In every place that it happens, you will see Democrat attorneys general standing up, drawing a line in the sand and saying, no, we need to have this American conversation because it is an un-American action by our president,” he added.

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