Trump federalizes 300 Illinois National Guard troops over Gov. Pritzker's objection, deploying state forces for immigration enforcement

On October 4, 2025, the Trump administration federalized 300 Illinois National Guard members after Governor JB Pritzker refused a Department of Defense ultimatum to voluntarily mobilize them for immigration enforcement. The administration had been conducting "Operation Midway Blitz," an ICE surge in the Chicago area, and sought state troops to protect the Broadview ICE processing facility from protesters. When Pritzker refused — calling the demand "absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will" — the White House invoked Militia Act and Title 10 authority to assert federal control over the state troops. A formal memorandum from the Department of Defense followed on October 6, citing "ongoing violent riots and lawlessness" at federal facilities as justification.

The Militia Act authorizes presidential federalization of state National Guard forces only when there is an insurrection or rebellion that state authorities cannot suppress, or when enforcement of federal law has been unlawfully obstructed. Illinois and Chicago sued immediately to block the deployment, and on October 9, U.S. District Judge April Perry issued a temporary restraining order. Judge Perry found "no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois" and concluded that the deployment "would only add fuel to the fire that the defendants themselves have started." The 7th Circuit upheld the TRO, writing plainly that "political opposition is not rebellion." The Supreme Court declined to lift the block in December 2025.

The federalization asserted emergency military authority — designed for genuine rebellions — against a state whose governor and courts uniformly denied any such conditions existed. By invoking the statutory threshold as a pretext for routine immigration enforcement, the administration attempted to compel a politically hostile state's own armed forces into service over its explicit constitutional objection, an action all three levels of the federal judiciary declined to permit.