Judge to Hear Arguments on Whether Guard Troops Near Chicago Can Stay

Immigration officers have been out in force around Chicago for weeks, arresting hundreds of people. Protesters have marched repeatedly, clashing at times with federal agents. And in recent days, President Trump has sent National Guard troops to Illinois and suggested that top Democrats there should be jailed.

Against that tense backdrop, a federal judge will hear arguments on Thursday about whether to block the deployment of the Guard, which Illinois officials have called a violation of state sovereignty and the Trump administration has defended as necessary for safety.

The judge, April M. Perry, a Biden appointee, heard a first round of arguments on the issue on Monday but declined to issue an immediate ruling. In the days since, National Guard troops from Texas and Illinois have mobilized in the region, with some staging at an Army Reserve facility about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.

The deployment in Illinois over the objection of Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, follows efforts by the Trump administration to send troops into two other Democratic-led states, California and Oregon, without the support of state officials.

Last weekend, a federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the president’s deployment of troops into Portland. A federal appellate panel is scheduled to consider the Trump administration’s appeal of the Oregon ruling on Thursday at the same time as the hearing in Judge Perry’s Illinois courtroom.

The move to use the Guard in the Chicago area comes weeks into an Illinois immigration enforcement campaign that has infuriated state and local officials and left residents on edge. President Trump has long spoken out about crime in Chicago, describing the city in harsh terms and criticizing state and local laws that limit coordination with immigration agents. On Wednesday, the president posted on social media that he believed Mr. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, both Democrats, “should be in jail” for what he described as “failing to protect ICE Officers!”

The governor has described the plan to deploy troops as an “invasion” and accused the president of upending constitutional norms. The mayor has said the president “wants to terrorize people and keep us in fear.” In their lawsuit seeking to block the Guard deployment, lawyers for the state and city said the deployment “reflects an unconstitutional attempt to infringe on Illinois’s power.”

The Trump administration has defended the deployment as well within the president’s authority. Republican attorneys general from 18 states noted in a court filing that protesters in Illinois have sometimes clashed with federal agents. They told the judge that mobilizing the Guard in response was appropriate.

“President Trump’s deployment of a small number of National Guard members to defend against this lawlessness is responsible, constitutional and authorized by statute,” the brief from the Republican attorneys general said.

In court on Monday, Judge Perry peppered lawyers for the Trump administration with questions about the planned deployment. She wanted to know where in Illinois the troops could be posted and when they would arrive on the streets. At multiple points she suggested, but did not demand, that the administration hold off on sending troops into the streets until she could more fully weigh the lawsuit.

“If I were the government, I might strongly consider taking a pause on this until Thursday,” said Judge Perry, who could rule on state and local officials’ request to temporarily block the deployment during the Thursday hearing or at any point afterward.

At one point on Monday, when lawyers for the Trump administration asked for a week to respond to the lawsuit, Judge Perry asked if they would be “willing to hold off a week before deploying them here.”

“I am not able to represent that we will do that,” said Eric Hamilton, a lawyer for the federal government.

The lawsuit has placed an intense spotlight on Judge Perry, who was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in November, in the waning days of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidency.

Judge Perry, a former corporate lawyer and federal prosecutor, had previously been nominated to be the top federal prosecutor in Chicago by Mr. Biden. That nomination was derailed by JD Vance, then a senator from Ohio and now the vice president.

Mr. Vance said on the Senate floor that his objection to the nomination of Ms. Perry and others was “not specific to the qualifications or the particular individuals” but rather based on his concern that the Justice Department had been politicized by the Biden administration. Ms. Perry was later nominated by Mr. Biden and confirmed by the Senate for the judgeship.