Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton joined leaders in Lake County on Friday to denounce President Donald Trump’s plan to make use of a close-by naval base to deal with a whole lot of federal immigration brokers as a part of a possible surge in enforcement subsequent week in Chicago.
Naval Station Nice Lakes close to North Chicago — the Navy’s largest coaching station and the most important army set up within the state — is being thought-about as a doable staging floor for the immigration blitz, the Chicago Solar-Occasions first reported. Nationwide Guard troops is also despatched to assist the trouble.
Like Gov. JB Pritzker, Stratton was defiant within the face of Trump’s plan to focus on Chicago, saying the president “is aware of Illinois received’t stand silently by whereas our neighbors are snatched off the road in broad daylight.”
She joined a refrain of voices talking out towards the Trump administration’s looming threats.
Earlier Friday, a gaggle of religion leaders met on the Dirksen Federal Courthouse downtown to ship a letter supposed for Trump to the U.S. legal professional’s workplace.
“We’re rising, rising not due to troopers and army occupation, however due to neighbors and organizers, healthcare professionals, educators, pastors and oldsters, younger folks and elders who resolve to decide on peace,” mentioned the Rev. Tyrone McGowan, from Progressive Group Church on the South Aspect.
The Rev. Marshall Hatch holds up a letter {that a} group of spiritual leaders plan to ship to the U.S. legal professional’s workplace within the Loop on Friday. The letter, addressed to President Donald Trump, asks the president to not ship Nationwide Guard and army personnel to Chicago.
Anthony Vazquez/Solar-Occasions
Across the identical time, a gaggle of veterans gathered just about and mentioned the deployment of the Nationwide Guard elsewhere had additionally stoked worry within the troops.
Demi Palacek, an Air Power veteran and member of the Illinois Military Nationwide Guard, famous that service members at the moment are “compelled into roles that pit us towards our personal communities.
“Readiness will endure, and [during] the following catastrophe or emergency, the Nationwide Guard won’t be trusted in the neighborhood to do its job,” Palacek added.
Along with a looming immigration enforcement operation that would ship greater than 200 federal brokers to the Chicago space, Trump has additionally threatened to ship within the Nationwide Guard to suppress crime, which he says is uncontrolled.
In actual fact, Chicago has seen a 32% decline in homicides, an almost 33% decline in robberies and a 36% decline in shootings to date this yr in contrast with 2024, in accordance with Chicago police information. Chicago’s murder fee had elevated by about 60% from 2019 to 2021, however as of 2025, it has adopted nationwide developments and fallen 25% beneath the place it was in 2019.
Talking alongside Stratton, North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. predicted the deliberate operation would goal “hardworking” households, drive up crime and promote mistrust amongst residents and native regulation enforcement — a worry echoed by Lake County States Legal professional Eric Reinhart.
“ICE raids don’t make us safer, they make us afraid,” Rockingham advised reporters gathered at Veterans Memorial Park in North Chicago. “These raids should not regulation enforcement, they’re worry enforcement, and I can’t go quietly into the night time and let our metropolis be the staging floor for inhumanity.”
A supply conversant in operations at Naval Station Nice Lakes mentioned last approval hadn’t been granted to make use of the bottom to deal with federal brokers finishing up immigration arrests.
Stratton and different lawmakers have mentioned it’s tough to formulate a plan to reply with out figuring out precisely what they’re up towards. Nonetheless, Stratton predicted that federal brokers would provoke protesters and create a disaster.
“Once we train our proper to peaceable protest, [Trump] will say we’ve gone too far,” she mentioned. “He’ll name within the Nationwide Guard and declare it’s the one technique to restore order.”
