Proposed bill seeks to block Texas National Guard from Illinois without consent

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTVO) — An Illinois congressman has introduced legislation that would prevent National Guard troops from patrolling Illinois streets without the consent of the governor.

Congressman Eric Sorenson (D-Illinois 17th) is backing House Resolution 590, in response to reports that the Texas National Guard is preparing to deploy to Chicago to support operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Gov. JB Pritzker previously mentioned that members of the Texas National Guard are on standby for deployment to Illinois should protests break out during ICE raids, though Texas Governor Greg Abbott denied the claim. A spokesperson for Abbott told NBC Chicago, “Texas would be ready, willing, and able to deploy all necessary resources to clean up the streets of Chicago should President Trump call upon us to do so.”

The proposed legislation would require the consent of the governors of both the sending state and receiving state if the President should request National Guard troops under Title 32.

“I’m not afraid to stand up to President Trump to protect my neighbors from an unlawful deployment of National Guard troops in our communities,” said Sorensen. “I trust our state and local law enforcement agencies to go after criminals and keep families safe. We don’t need faraway governors in other states – who know nothing about our communities – sending in their National Guard units against the explicit wishes of our governor.”

President Donald Trump on Saturday amplified his promises to send National Guard troops and immigration agents to Chicago by posting a parody image from “Apocalypse Now” featuring a ball of flames as helicopters zoom over the nation’s third-largest city.

“’I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’” Trump wrote on his social media site. “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

The president offered no details beyond the label “Chipocalypse Now,” a play on the title of Francis Ford Coppola’s dystopian 1979 film set in the Vietnam war, in which a character says: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

In response to the post, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, called Trump a “wannabe dictator.”

The president “is threatening to go to war with an American city,” Pritzker wrote on X over an image of Trump’s post. “This is not a joke. This is not normal.”

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be launching “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, to “target the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets.”

According to ICE, undocumented immigrants arrested as part of the nationwide effort had criminal histories, including sexual assault, robbery, drug and weapons charges, and domestic violence, the agency said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.