500 US troops deploy in Chicago ahead of court hearing

US President Donald Trump arrives to address troops at the Al-Udeid air base southwest of Doha on May 15, 2025. Qatar on June 23, 2025 condemned an Iranian attack on the largest US military base in the region, hosted in the Gulf state, calling it a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty”.

Five hundred US troops deployed in the Chicago area on Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown, despite strenuous objections of local leaders seeking a judge’s order to block the mobilization.

District Judge April Perry was set to hold a hearing on the issue, a day after Trump called for jailing the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago for resisting his military-backed mass deportation and anti-crime campaign.

The government argues the troops are needed to protect federal agents during immigration raids in the Democratic stronghold, the third-largest city in the United States, which the Trump administration depicts in exaggerated and lurid terms as “a war zone.”

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview “has been the target of actual and threatened violence,” requiring “assistance from the Department of War,” the Trump administration said in a court filing late Wednesday.

Local elected officials were seeking to “second-guess” Trump’s judgement, the filing said.But responsibility, and accountability, for those decisions should rest with the political branches of the federal government, not this Court,” the filing argued.National Guard troops were seen entering the Broadview facility overnight, local media reported