WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area, escalating President Donald Trump's conflict with Democratic governors over using the military on U.S. soil.
The emergency appeal to the high court came after a judge prevented, for at least two weeks, the deployment of Guard members from Illinois and Texas to assist immigration enforcement. A federal appeals court refused to put the judge’s order on hold.
The conservative-dominated court has handed Trump repeated victories in emergency appeals since he took office in January, after lower courts have ruled against him and often over the objection of the three liberal justices. The court has allowed Trump to ban transgender people from the military, claw back billions of dollars of congressionally approved federal spending, move aggressively against immigrants and fire the Senate-confirmed leaders of independent federal agencies,
In the dispute over the Guard, U.S. District Judge April Perry said she found no substantial evidence that a “danger of rebellion” is brewing in Illinois during Trump’s immigration crackdown.
But Solicitor General D. John Sauer, Trump's top Supreme Court lawyer, urged the justices to step in immediately. Perry's order, Sauer wrote, “impinges on the President’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel and property.”
Eleven people were arrested at a Friday protest outside a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview. Law enforcement had urged demonstrators to stay in designated “protest zones.”
In recent weeks, the Broadview ICE facility has been the site of tense protests, where federal agents have previously used tear gas and other chemical agents on protesters and journalists.
A federal judge in Oregon also has temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Democratic elected officials sued Friday to try to stop the ongoing Guard deployment in Memphis. They said Republican Gov. Bill Lee, with Trump's support, violated the state constitution, which says the Guard can be called up during “rebellion or invasion” but only with the blessing of state lawmakers.
The deployment "sets a dangerous precedent for military intrusion into local communities,” Memphis City Council member JB Smiley said.
Since their arrival on Oct. 10, troops have been patrolling areas of downtown Memphis, including near the iconic Pyramid, wearing fatigues and protective vests that say “military police,” with guns in holsters. Officials have said Guard members have no arrest power.
“We’re in a unique spot in this city to have the resources available to us to remove the crime element in Memphis,” Lee said recently.
For years, Memphis has dealt with high violent crime, including assaults, carjackings and homicides. While this year’s statistics show improvement, many people acknowledge that violence remains a problem.
In California, a judge in September said deployment in the Los Angeles area was illegal. By that point, just 300 of the thousands of troops sent there remained and the judge did not order them to leave.
Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.
Military personnel in uniform, with the Texas National Guard patch on, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Elwood, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
