Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot lays down the law to Trump and vows 'under NO circumstances' will she allow him to send a 'Portland-style' 150-strong federal force to 'terrorize' the city
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the feds plan to surge FBI and DEA agents to help her city contend with local crime – not not an 'undemocratic' insertion of unidentified Homeland Security agents.
Her statement signaled a possible deescalation as critics fume about the Trump administration's use of 'secret' Homeland Security Investigations agents who have taken part in violent clashes with protesters in Portland.
Lightfoot, who has publicly clashed with President Trump, vowed there would be no 'Portland-style deployment' in her city Tuesday, just hours before gun violence erupted at a funeral.
Fifteen people were wounded on Chicago's South Side in the shooting outside a funeral home Tuesday night.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed there would be no 'Portland-style deployment' of federal agents in her city
Lightfoot also vowed in a tweet before that incident: 'Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump's troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.'
Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, told reporters Tuesday she spoke with U.S. John Lausch and received reassurances, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. On Monday, the Chicago Tribune reported DHS would dispatch 150 of its HSI agents to the city, after Trump said he was 'sending in law enforcement.'
According to an HSI website, its agents tackle a variety of crime, including 'narcotics and weapons smuggling/trafficking' as well as 'transnational gang activity.'
'I don't put anything past this administration, which is why we will continue to be diligent and why we will continue to be ready,' sad Lightfoot. 'If we need to stop them and use the courts to do so, we are ready to do that.'
'I'm gonna do something, that I can tell you," Trump vowed Monday, reeling off names of U.S. cities under Democratic control
Federal agents disperse Black Lives Matter protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Officers used teargas and projectiles to move the crowd after some protesters tore down a fence fronting the courthouse
Federal agents disperse Black Lives Matter protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Officers used teargas and projectiles to move the crowd after some protesters tore down a fence fronting the courthouse
Federal officers use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore.
Federal law enforcement officers are seen during a demonstration against the presence of federal law enforcement officers and racial inequality in Portland, Oregon, U.S., July 22, 2020
Lightfoot says tweeted she won't let federal troops 'terrorize' the city.' She said she got assurances FBI, DEA and other agents were coming in to assist in crime-fighting
Lightfoot tweeted after 15 were injured in a Chicago shooting Tuesday
Amid confusion about what federal agents might be sent in, Lightfoot hedged her language. DHS has refused to comment on 'leaked' reports about its agents being deployed.
'What I understand at this point — and I caveat that — is that the Trump administration is not going to foolishly deploy unnamed agents to the streets of Chicago,' she said.
'As I understand it, what we will be getting are some additional resources in the FBI, the DEA and the ATF,' she added.
She even described the federal help as potentially useful in combatting the city's crime wave – which Trump made a campaign issue in 2016 and has been fuming about again.
'What we will receive is resources that are going to plug into the existing federal agencies that we work with on a regular basis to help manage and suppress violent crime in our city,' she said.
She said Laushch would be 'in the loop.' She called what happened in Portland 'not only unconstitutional, it was undemocratic.'
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had to field questions at Tuesday's press briefing about a former U.S. Navy serviceman who was beaten and pepper sprayed by federal agents in Portland, where protests have centered around a federal courthouse.
McEnany cited a statute allowing for the protection of federal assets as the justification for sending federal agents there despite opposition from state and local officials. There was no such immediate threat to a federal building in Chicago.
She also cited instances of protesters hurling objects at police. The feds sent in the forces after weeks of protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for information about what federal agents were being sent to Chicago.
Police said the incident Tuesday night took place near where a funeral was being held for a man shot and killed last week in the city.
Lightfoot tweeted: ''When a person picks up a gun, we suffer as a city. This cannot be who we are. Too many guns are on our streets and in the hands of people who should never possess them. These individuals will be held accountable.'
Trump brandished the power of federal law enforcement at the White House on Monday.
'I'm gonna do something, that I can tell you," Trump vowed, "because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these — Oakland is a mess. We're not going to let this happen in our country,' he said.
There will be 'more federal law enforcement, that I can tell you,' Trump said.
Trump speaks at the White House Wednesday on 'Operation LeGend.' The joint operation was carried out in Kansas City at the invitation of local officials. It announced its first arrest Monday: Monty W. Ray, 20, who agents pulled over in a stolen vehicle. They called him a 'violent crime waiting to happen.' He had outstanding warrants for assault on an officer and fleeing after he allegedly ran over a police officer's foot.
