CHICAGO — A group of retired military leaders — including the former head of the state’s National Guard, several generals and an admiral — met with Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday and publicly criticized President Donald Trump’s attempted use of National Guard troops in Chicago.
The deployment is on pause following a federal judge’s order but has attracted criticism from other former military officials as well as civic groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Our founders understood that freedom cannot thrive under the shadow of military control,” retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner said. “Civilian police accountable to local leaders and bound by civil law are the right tools for maintaining order, not troops and tanks.”
During a Thursday news conference, several speakers pointed to troop deployments in Memphis, Los Angeles and other cities.
“Today we have to draw a line in the sand, respectfully, firmly and without equivocation,” Janessa Goldbeck, a retired Marine and head of the Vet Voice Foundation, said. “This is not normal, this is not American, and this is not what the military is for.”
Meanwhile, retired Maj. Gen. William Enyart, the former adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard and one-term Democratic U.S. representative, said he was offended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “cosplaying” as soldiers.
“These ICE agents are not trained soldiers. They’re not trained soldiers,” Enyart said. “They don’t show the discipline that soldiers do. They don’t obey the same rules of engagement that soldiers do.”
Other military opposition
The group convened by Pritzker is not the first group of military officials to oppose Trump’s proposed National Guard deployment.
A group of nine former service secretaries and four-star admirals and generals filed a brief in an ongoing lawsuit over the deployment. They include former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, an appointee of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe, an appointee of both George H.W. and George W. Bush. The group also includes admirals and generals from the Navy, Coast Guard, Army and Air Force.
A domestic troop deployment for law enforcement purposes “inevitably erodes public trust, hurts recruitment, and undermines troop morale,” the group wrote in their brief.
“Peaceful protests of government actions are constitutionally protected political speech deserving of the highest protection, not intimidation by the military,” they said.
A temporary restraining order issued as part of that suit is currently blocking the federal government from deploying troops. That order expires next week but could be extended.
Appeals court stands firm
Over the weekend, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Court Judge April Perry’s decision to issue that restraining order blocking deployment of National Guard troops but reversed her ruling that Trump didn’t have the authority to federalize guardsmen.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel from the appeals court published its full opinion backing up its initial ruling, writing that “the facts do not justify the President’s actions in Illinois.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the judges ruled.
The ruling briefly alluded to arrested protesters who happened to be carrying firearms with the proper licensing. The judges wrote that just because some protesters “exercise their Second Amendment right” does not mean a protest is a rebellion — or when demonstrators are organized, engage in civil disobedience or “call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government.”
“Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue participants in the protest,” the judges wrote.
Free speech lawsuit continues
A judge on Thursday took a harsh stance against the recent actions by ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection, the two federal agencies responsible for the recent crackdown on illegal immigration in Chicago.
After barring federal agents from using chemical irritants like tear gas and other similar measures last week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis admonished federal agents for using tear gas in a residential neighborhood earlier this week.
Citing “serious concerns” that her orders were being ignored, Ellis told Russell Hott, the head of ICE’s Chicago field office, to come into her courtroom for questioning on Monday, according to reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times.
Ellis also ordered agents to begin using body-worn cameras.
Pritzker, who said federal agents have been “lying all along,” applauded the judge’s move, saying it was the “right thing.”
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