Former President Donald Trump on midweek called for the detainment of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, alleging them of failing to protect ICE agents.
"The city's leader belongs behind bars for endangering Immigration agents!" Trump wrote on his platform early Wednesday. "Governor Pritzker as well!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.
Trump's statements come alongside the deployment of state military personnel in the Chicago region under orders from the current government, despite strong objections from Illinois authorities including the governor and mayor.
"This represents yet another attempt where Trump attempted to have an African American leader wrongfully arrested," Mayor Johnson stated on Wednesday. "I am staying anywhere."
Pritzker also replied via online channels, declaring: "I will not back down. Now Trump is calling for imprisonment of elected officials checking his power. What remains on the path to full-blown autocracy?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from the Lone Star State had arrived at the Elwood training facility, a military installation roughly 80 kilometers from the city, as the federal government advances with its hardline crime strategy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has called Chicago a "crime-ridden disaster zone", despite official statistics indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, such as murders.
On Wednesday, 200 state guard troops were expected to deploy to the region, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard forces readying for deployment, according to sources. Officials indicated the troops would avoid law enforcement duties but would secure ICE officers and their facilities.
Military personnel wearing uniforms with Texas national guard patches were spotted at the US army reserve center in the town. Vehicles marked "Emergency Disaster Services" dropped off portable toilets and other supplies. Trailers were arranged in rows. Extra barriers was placed around the compound.
Aviation authorities imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for security reasons until early December.
The administration has escalated deportation operations in Chicago in recent weeks, sparking protests, especially near an immigration center in Broadview.
Earlier this week, Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a court to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on Chicago and Illinois, labeling it "unlawful and dangerous".
Legal proceedings on their lawsuit is set for Thursday.
The mayor also signed an directive on that day prohibiting ICE officers and others from using municipal facilities as staging areas for enforcement actions.
The governor has charged Trump of using military forces as "staged tools" and "pawns".
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pritzker said that the president is attempting to "rationalize and make acceptable the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command."
The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act restricts the army's involvement in enforcing domestic laws. Yet, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the emergency powers, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an uprising or are defying federal law.
After beginning his second term, Trump has sent or mentioned deploying military units to at least 10 urban centers, such as Baltimore; Washington DC; New Orleans and West Coast locations like Bay Area and Southern California municipalities, arguing that the armed forces is necessary to combat crime and protect ICE officers.
Statistics shows that most violent crime nationwide has decreased in recent years. In the city, for example, murders were reduced nearly one-third to 278 through August, per law enforcement reports.
A recent poll published on Wednesday found that most Americans oppose the sending of military forces without an external threat.
