Judges have stalled President Donald Trump’s plans to deploy the National Guard in Chicago and in Portland, Oregon, but troops are now patrolling in Memphis, Tennessee, with the blessing of the state’s governor.
The troops, dressed in Guard fatigues and protective vests, with guns in their holsters, patrolled at a Bass Pro Shops store and a nearby tourist welcome center beside the Mississippi River on Friday. It was unclear how many troops have been deployed to Memphis.
Trump has sent or discussed sending troops to other cities as well, including Baltimore; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The federal government says the troops support immigration agents and protect federal property.
The Guard troops in Memphis remain under the command of Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who supports their use to further a federal crackdown on crime.
By contrast, Trump has attempted to deploy National Guard troops — including some from Texas and California — in Portland and Chicago after taking control of them himself, over objections from state and local leaders who say such interference violates their sovereignty and federal law. Federal courts in Illinois and Oregon this week blocked Trump’s efforts to send troops out in those cities.
Here’s where things stand:
What’s happening in Memphis
Trump announced Sept. 15 that he intended to deploy the Guard to Memphis, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, embraced the plan to bolster law enforcement operations there.
Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat who did not request the deployment, said he hopes the task force will target violent offenders rather than scare, harass or intimidate residents.
Federal officials say agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Marshals Service have made hundreds of arrests and issued more than 2,800 traffic citations since the task force began operating in Memphis on Sept. 29.
Illinois senators denied entry to ICE building
Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth said they were denied access Friday to the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, a site of confrontations between protesters and federal agents.
“It is appalling that two United States senators are not allowed to visit this facility,” Duckworth said. “What are you afraid of?”
The senators said they have congressional oversight authority.
“Something is going on in there they don’t want us to see,” Durbin said. “I don’t know what it is.”
Illinois judge blocks troop deployment
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the deployment of troops in Chicago for at least two weeks. The Justice Department appealed the next day.
U.S. District Judge April Perry in Chicago said the Trump administration violated the 10th Amendment, which grants certain powers to states, and the 14th Amendment, which assures due process and equal protection, when he ordered National Guard troops to the city.
In a written order Friday explaining her rationale, Perry noted the nation’s long aversion to having military involvement in domestic policing.
“Not even the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government” — Alexander Hamilton — “believed that one state’s militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution,” Perry wrote.
Hamilton called that notion “preposterous.”
“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,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.
Oregon judge also blocks Trump efforts
Another court battle in Oregon earlier delayed a similar troop deployment to Portland. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in that case Thursday.
Lt. Cmdr. Theresa Meadows, a spokesperson for U.S. Northern Command, said the troops sent to Portland and Chicago are “not conducting any operational activities at this time.”
Troops patrol outside Chicago
Five hundred guard members from Texas and Illinois arrived this week at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago, and have been activated for 60 days.
They started patrolling Thursday morning behind portable fences outside the ICE Broadview facility.
A federal judge late Thursday ordered ICE to remove a separate 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter) fence outside the Broadview facility after the Village of Broadview said it illegally blocks a public street.
Also Thursday, another federal judge in Illinois temporarily ordered federal agents to wear badges and banned them from using certain riot control weapons against peaceful protesters and journalists outside the ICE facility, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago.
In Chicago, federal prosecutors have obtained a grand jury indictment against a woman and man accused of using their vehicles to strike and box in a Border Patrol agent’s vehicle last Saturday.
The agent exited his car and fired five shots at Marimar Martinez, 30, who was treated at a hospital. The indictment filed Thursday formalizes charges of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon — a vehicle. Anthony Ruiz, 21, is also charged.
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Associated Press reporters across the U.S. contributed, including Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Sophia Tareen and Christine Fernando in Chicago; and Josh Boak and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, D.C.
