Trump threatens to use the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to states that resist deportations

President Donald Trump has stated that he would consider declaring an "insurrection" within the United States. He plans to accuse Democratic governors and mayors of obstructing the federal government's ability to enforce immigration laws. Trump claims they are turning their cities into "war zones," writes ABC News.

"Chicago is a wonderful city, but it has a lot of crime," Trump told reporters on October 7. "And if the governor can't do his job, we can do it. It's that simple."

Invoking the Insurrection Act would give the president emergency powers to use military force in American cities on a scale not seen since the civil rights movement.

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This would potentially pit troops from a Republican-run southern state against Democratic-run northern states and cities.

According to administration officials, approximately 200 Texas National Guard troops were preparing to deploy to Chicago this week. A federal judge has agreed not to block those deployments for now.

"This seriously escalates the situation," said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Center for a New American Security.

By law, the president may use military forces to protect federal buildings and federal government employees. However, they may only perform law enforcement functions if they remain under the control of the governor of the state in question.

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The big exception to these restrictions is the Insurrection Act, which Trump has said he is prepared to invoke if killings occur and if Democrats running states like Illinois and Oregon "throw a spanner in the works."

Signed in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson, this law allows the president to send military forces within the United States to perform law enforcement functions and suppress "insurrection" that threatens a state or its inhabitants.

"If I have to use it, I will," Trump assured. "If people continue to be killed, and the courts, governors, or mayors continue to interfere, of course I will."

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump said he wouldn't invoke the law unless necessary. At the same time, he declared what was happening to be "pure sedition."

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, called claims of civil unrest in his state "complete nonsense" and denounced the arrival of Texas troops as "an unconstitutional intrusion of the federal government into Illinois."

If Trump declares an insurrection in Illinois, it would be the first time a president has invoked the law without the governor's consent since Lyndon Johnson did so in 1965 in Alabama to protect civil rights activists.

Since then, the law has only been invoked at the request of governors, notably in 1992 during the California riots following the acquittal of police officers accused of beating Rodney King's driver.

On October 6, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott and senior presidential aide Stephen Miller echoed Trump's accusations. They called Chicago a "war zone" and accused Democrats of refusing to enforce federal laws.

"We're seeing individual states refusing to enforce the law, and we're getting chaos," Abbott explained in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Miller, who is leading Trump's push for mass deportations within the country, has directly accused local authorities of trying to undermine the federal government.

"There is an attempt to delegitimize the core function of the federal government, which is to enforce our immigration laws and our sovereignty," he told CNN on October 6.

"This is domestic terrorism. This is rebellion," he added.

Kuzminsky of the Center for a New American Security noted that the president has broad authority to invoke the Insurrection Act. But when Democratic-governed states inevitably take the matter to court, a judge will likely require Trump to prove that an insurrection actually occurred.

In the case of Illinois, the Trump administration may portray the "insurrection" as the actions of Pritzker himself and other Democratic politicians.

At a press conference on October 6, Pritzker said he believed invoking the Insurrection Act was part of Trump's plan.

"The Trump administration is following a pre-planned playbook to create chaos, sow fear and confusion, and make peaceful protesters look like a violent mob by firing pepper spray and tear gas," Pritzker told reporters.

"Why? To create a pretext for invoking the Sedition Act and sending military forces into our city," he concluded.

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Kuzminski noted that the federal government must proceed with extreme caution when it comes to using military force in American cities.

"We pride ourselves on training the most effective military forces in the world," she concluded. "And that's why we set such strict boundaries for their use in law enforcement."

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