National Guard troops assemble in Chicago area as Trump officials make visits

An armored vehicle carrying members of a Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Response Team pulls up by a crowd of protesters outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview, Ill., on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois said earlier this week that the state would use every lever at its disposal to fight the Trump administration’s deployment of Texas National Guard troops to the Chicago area, which he labeled an “unconstitutional invasion of Illinois” by the federal government. (Jamie Kelter Davis/The New York Times)

By ANNA GRIFFIN, MITCH SMITH, ROBERT CHIARITO and GLENN THRUSH

Troops from Texas assembled in the Chicago outskirts Tuesday, an extraordinary symbol of what local officials have decried as an unconstitutional “invasion” ordered by President Donald Trump, as the homeland security secretary was visiting Portland, Oregon, to show support for a similar incursion there.

Illinois and Chicago officials have contested the president’s deployment orders in court, denouncing the step of moving National Guard forces across state lines without consent from local or state authorities. Trump has also tried to send troops from Texas and California to Portland, but a federal judge has blocked those moves for now, saying they appear unconstitutional.

The president contends that major U.S. cities, almost entirely those led by Democrats, need the military to crack down on crime — something troops are generally barred from doing under federal law — and to protect federal immigration agents from protesters as they try to carry out his mass deportation policies.

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and other Democratic leaders have accused the president of conducting a campaign divorced from reality in an effort to punish political enemies, sow chaos and consolidate his power under martial law. On Tuesday, troops from the Texas National Guard were assembling at a training center in Elwood, about an hour’s drive from downtown Chicago.

Here’s what else is happening:

— Administration officials: Attorney General Pam Bondi said during congressional testimony that Kash Patel, the FBI director, and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, were “on their way to Chicago” along with the troops from Texas. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, was visiting an immigration enforcement facility in Portland. Local and state officials have suggested that the visits are designed to stir further outrage.

— Twin court hearings: Federal courts in two states will hold simultaneous hearings on the National Guard mobilizations Thursday morning. The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s decision in Oregon to temporarily block troops from deploying there. A federal judge in Illinois declined to issue a similar block Monday, scheduling a hearing on an emergency request from Illinois officials for Thursday.

— Approval and resistance: State leaders sparred over the president’s authority to send National Guard troops across borders. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, defended the action, saying in an interview on Fox News that Democratic-led states “are refusing to enforce the law, and we have chaos.” Pritzker, a Democrat, has called the mobilization a blatant attempt by Trump to assert unconstitutional powers.

— City leaders weigh in: A coalition of cities from across the country filed a legal brief late Monday supporting Oregon’s attempt to block National Guard soldiers from deploying in Portland. The brief also claimed that Trump plans to send troops to 19 more states. City leaders said they were “gravely concerned that any protest — real or perceived — within their borders will result in another unnecessary deployment of the military.”