Judge blocks guard deployment in Illinois

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago on Thursday temporarily blocked United States President Donald Trump's deployment of hundreds of National Guard soldiers in Illinois, five days after another US judge blocked a similar deployment in Portland, Oregon.

US District Judge April Perry said that permitting Guard troops in the state would only "add fuel to the fire", after hearing more than two hours of arguments from lawyers for the US government and the state of Illinois, which sued the Trump administration over the deployment.

Separately, a three-judge panel at a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday appeared likely to set aside the ruling blocking Trump's Portland deployment, which would clear the way for hundreds of soldiers to enter that city.

The outcomes of the two cases could have significant implications for Trump's expanding campaign to deploy military personnel to the streets of US cities.

The Democratic governors of Illinois and Oregon have accused Trump of deliberately mischaracterizing small, mostly peaceful protests as violent and dangerous to justify National Guard deployments.

In delivering her decision on Thursday from the bench, Perry said she was having difficulty lending credence to the government's claims of violence during protests at an immigration facility in the suburb of Broadview, Illinois, where a small group of demonstrators has gathered daily for weeks.

She cited a ruling from another Chicago judge, also issued on Thursday, that temporarily limited the ability of federal agents to use force to disperse crowds. Protesters and journalists had filed a separate lawsuit seeking that order, saying federal officers had injured them at the Broadview center.

Perry said the behavior of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has prompted the protests, and deploying Guard soldiers to Broadview would "only add fuel to the fire that defendants themselves have started".

Her order will remain in effect until at least Oct 23.

A White House spokesperson said the administration would appeal the order. "President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities and we expect to be vindicated by a higher court," said the spokesperson, Abigail Jackson.

Escalating tensions

In a social media post, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said, "Donald Trump is not a king and his administration is not above the law. Today, the court confirmed what we all know: there is no credible evidence of a rebellion in the state of Illinois. And no place for the National Guard in the streets of American cities like Chicago."

In the US, the National Guard is usually directed by governors and responds to events such as natural disasters. Under US law, National Guard and other military personnel are not typically permitted to engage in civilian law enforcement.

While a US president can deploy the Guard under certain authorities, Trump is testing the limits of those powers by sending them to cities controlled by his political opponents.

Trump on Thursday again suggested he intends to expand his effort to deploy troops to US cities to combat what he claims is rampant violence. The president has previously sent troops to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. Troops have also been deployed to Memphis, Tennessee, with the support of the state's Republican governor.

"We're in Memphis. We're going to Chicago. We're going to other cities," Trump said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

"We have a very powerful military," he said. "We have a very powerful National Guard. We are directly confronting the sinister threat of left-wing domestic terrorism and violence, including the terrorist group antifa," referring to a decentralized anti-fascist movement with no formal structure.

A trial court in Los Angeles has ruled that Trump's deployment of Guard troops there during the summer was illegal. The administration is appealing.

Agencies via Xinhua