PinnedUpdated Oct. 8, 2025, 3:25 p.m. ETFederal officials increased their attacks Wednesday on city and state leaders in places where President Trump wants to deploy National Guard troops, accusing them of failing to support federal agents and demanding more security at federal facilities. The heated rhetoric followed an early-morning social media post from Mr. Trump saying two Illinois officials should be jailed.Administration officials used appearances on conservative news outlets to amp up descriptions of violence and denounce leaders and demonstrators in Chicago and Portland, Ore. Some 500 National Guard troops, including 200 from Texas, are expected to begin operations in Chicago on Wednesday, though there was no sign of them yet on the streets. Troops from Oregon and California are currently assembled near Portland, as well.State-filed lawsuits attempting to stop both deployments will be argued in federal court on Thursday in simultaneous hearings in Oregon and Illinois. Mr. Trump is appealing a federal judge’s order keeping troops out of Portland on constitutional grounds, while Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois has called the president’s actions an “unconstitutional invasion” designed to provoke reaction.In response to the local pushback, President Trump posted on social media early Wednesday that Mr. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago should “be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers!” Both officials said in social media posts that they would not pull back. Local officials have blamed ICE’s aggressive tactics and unprovoked attacks on protesters for causing any unrest.Here’s what we’re covering:No crime fighting: Government and military officials said on Tuesday that the National Guard troops in Illinois would not assume law enforcement duties themselves, despite the president’s repeated insistence that the Guard was being sent to prevent out-of-control crime in Chicago, which he described as a “war zone.” Instead, the troops would only be used to protect federal immigration officers and federal facilities, officials said.“Low energy” protests: Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, met with state and local officials in Portland on Tuesday, and told Fox News that she had threatened to increase the number of federal agents there fourfold if local law enforcement did not provide “more security,” even though protests outside an immigration facility were previously described by federal officers as “low energy.” Read more ›Legal challenges: Court hearings on the Trump-ordered National Guard deployments to Oregon and Illinois are scheduled to start simultaneously on Thursday, at noon Eastern time. Judge April M. Perry, who is presiding in the Chicago case, was appointed by President Biden. Mr. Trump appointed Judge Karin Immergut, whose ruling against the Trump administration in Oregon is being appealed to the Ninth Circuit.What is the National Guard?: A state-based reserve military force, Guard troops can be called up for military missions, but are generally used during peacetime to provide assistance during and after natural disasters. Mr. Trump’s federal activation of Guard troops in recent months has been a departure from the force’s historic role and deemed unconstitutional by several courts, with some of those cases on appeal. Read more ›Oct. 8, 2025, 3:19 p.m. ETHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the roof of an ICE detention center in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday. With her during the visit were federal workers and several conservative influencers. Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York TimesHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and state and city leaders who met with her in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday have offered sharply differing accounts of their conversations and perceptions of the situation at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that has been the focus of protests.In Ms. Noem’s telling, she presented those leaders with a clear choice on the protests at the ICE building, in South Portland: Do more to protect federal officers or face an influx of federal forces.Ms. Noem and other federal leaders have said the situation around the ICE building, where demonstrators typically stand or sit on the sidewalks and sometimes attempt to block cars from entering or leaving, must change.“We want more security at the building, a bigger buffer zone to keep our officers safe,” she told Fox News Tuesday evening, adding that she didn’t want to “let the anarchists run this city anymore.”The elected officials acknowledged that their conversations with the secretary, held at Portland International Airport and at the ICE building, were direct and, at times, uncomfortable.“I’m glad she had time for me,” Tina Kotek, Oregon’s governor, said in an interview. “I think it’s important that she’s here to see what is going on. And, hopefully, she’ll come away with the understanding that this is not an insurrection or a rebellion or whatever else the president is saying.”The local leaders said they also made their own requests: that federal agents abide by Oregon laws regarding how and when law enforcement can use force, including tear gas.Ms. Noem told Fox News that she was dealing with “a bunch of pansies” in her talks with elected officials in Oregon and was “extremely disappointed” by her conversation with Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson.“I told him that if he did not follow through on some of these security measures for our officers,” she said, “we are going to cover him up with more federal resources and that we were going to send four times the amount of federal officers here so that the people of Portland can have some safety.”Mr. Wilson didn’t immediately respond to Ms. Noem’s latest comments, but he issued a statement late Tuesday saying he was concerned about the plans and wanted “to explore options to protect our community and our right to free expression.”The scene at the ICE building when Ms. Noem visited on Tuesday was calm. About a dozen demonstrators, including a woman in a bear costume and sombrero and a man in a chicken onesie, were outnumbered by journalists. The police had cordoned off a one-block area around the facility, so Ms. Noem’s only view of the protests came when she surveyed the scene from the roof of the building — alongside some federal employees and several conservative influencers — and when her motorcade entered and exited the building.Portland Police continued to keep a one block radius around the building closed to the public on Wednesday. Overnight, they removed a sidewalk camp that protesters had been using for several months.A federal district court judge, Karin Immergut, has temporarily blocked President Trump’s plan to send federalized National Guard soldiers to protect the ICE building. An appeal in that case is underway at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.TROOPS IN U.S. CITIESNational Guard deployments by the Trump administrationChicago area: 500About 300 Illinois troops and 200 Texas troops are expected on the streets soon.Portland, Ore.: NoneFederal judge temporarily blocked deployment of California troops staged near the city.Washington: 2,400Deployed in August in what the administration called a crime-fighting push.Los Angeles: 300Peaked at 4,700 in June. Trump is appealing a ruling that the deployment was illegal.Oct. 8, 2025, 3:13 p.m. ETAnna GriffinReporting from Portland, Ore.The police have continued to cordon off a one-block radius around the ICE building in Portland, Ore., and protesters who have been camping near the building for months say they have been told that the area will remain closed to the public for at least a week.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York TimesOct. 8, 2025, 3:13 p.m. ETRepresentative Robin Kelly, whose district includes part of Chicago, said on Wednesday that she had not yet received reports of National Guard troops on the ground in the downtown area of the city. She criticized President Trump for saying Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Mayor Brandon Johnson should be in jail. “I think the president wants the violence, wants the chaos,” she said.Oct. 8, 2025, 1:56 p.m. ETPresident Trump’s decisions to deploy the National Guard cannot be questioned by federal judges, the nonprofit America First Legal argued in a court filing on Tuesday, in support of the administration’s appeal to send troops to Portland, Ore. The group, founded by Stephen Miller, cited an 1827 Supreme Court case that found the president “exclusively” held “the authority to decide” when to use statutory powers to call up the Guard.Oct. 8, 2025, 1:12 p.m. ETAnna GriffinReporting from Portland, Ore.Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, told Fox News on Tuesday evening that she made clear demands to leaders in Portland, Ore., about changes she wanted to see at the ICE building there, including adding more security and a larger buffer zone for officers. Noem said she told the mayor that if he did not comply, she would send “four times the amount of federal officers.”Credit...Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty ImagesOct. 8, 2025, 12:32 p.m. ETLawyers for Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, have filed a court brief supporting efforts to block the deployment of National Guard troops, saying President Trump’s action would “intrude on state and local sovereignty” and increase public fear. A hearing in that case is scheduled for tomorrow.Oct. 8, 2025, 10:46 a.m. ETPresident Trump has repeatedly attacked Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, shown here at a news conference on Monday in which they denounced the administration’s National Guard deployment to the Chicago area. Credit...Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPresident Trump said on Wednesday that Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago should be jailed, escalating his campaign of retribution against those he sees as his political foes.Both Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Johnson are Democrats who have opposed Mr. Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to the Chicago area and have criticized the aggressive way in which the Trump administration has carried out immigration raids. Mr. Johnson has signed an executive order to establish “ICE-free zones” in Chicago to prevent federal agents from staging operations.“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.Both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Pritzker said in social media posts that they would not pull back. “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’m not going anywhere.”And Mr. Pritzker said: “Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”The threat to jail Democratic officials who fight against Mr. Trump’s actions comes as the president has taken myriad steps to harm those who oppose him.He has pulled protective details from members of his first administration who face death threats from Iran. He has revoked or threatened to revoke the security clearances of President Biden, members of his administration and dozens of others. His administration has taken steps to target members of the media seen as unfriendly, taken the hatchet to entire agencies perceived as too liberal and fired or investigated government workers deemed disloyal.Today, one of Mr. Trump’s highest-profile targets, the former F.B.I. director James Comey, will appear in court on charges filed against him by the Trump administration.The threat also comes as Mr. Trump has increasingly sought to send in federal law enforcement and military forces in a show of force against protesters in American cities, including Portland, demonstrating against his aggressive immigration-enforcement campaign.Today, the White House plans to hold a round table discussion on the administration's plans to target the loosely defined left-wing antifascist movement known as antifa. Mr. Trump has threatened “investigatory and prosecutorial action” against those who financially support antifa.Anushka Patil contributed reporting.Oct. 8, 2025, 10:36 a.m. ETRobert ChiaritoReporting from Broadview, Ill.Near the ICE facility in Broadview, Ill., there were a few protesters and several journalists this morning, but no sign of the National Guard. A few Cook County Sheriff’s officers and Illinois State Police officers were present, mostly sitting inside their parked vehicles on what so far has been an uneventful morning.Oct. 8, 2025, 10:19 a.m. ETIt looked like a pretty standard Wednesday morning rush hour in the Chicago Loop, contrary to the Trump administration’s descriptions of the city as a “war zone.” Commuters were arriving at their offices, and there was no visible military or protester presence outside a complex of federal buildings downtown.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesOct. 7, 2025, 3:03 p.m. ETNational Guard troops patrolling in downtown Washington in August, after President Trump mobilized troops in the city.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesPresident Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard in several U.S. cities in recent months is a departure from its historic role.The National Guard is a state-based military force whose troops wear uniforms and rank, operate military vehicles and weapons, and have often been called upon to serve alongside regular active-duty units in war. But when deployed domestically, the Guard has traditionally been asked to provide humanitarian assistance, not to act as a partisan strike force at the whim of the president.Mr. Trump has activated the Guard several times this year in Democratic-led cities, in what he has called a crackdown on crime and as part of his escalating immigration enforcement tactics.Here is an overview of what the National Guard typically does and how Mr. Trump is currently deploying the force in the United States.What is the National Guard?Tracing its history to the Massachusetts militia in 1636, the National Guard is a component of the U.S. military that has state and federal missions and traditionally operates under the jurisdiction of governors under Title 32 of the U.S. Code.By comparison, the active-duty military operates under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, and the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act makes it a crime to use the regular military as a domestic police force in most circumstances.Who is in charge of it?The chief of the National Guard Bureau, which administers two organizations — the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard — was a job for a three-star general until recent years.According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress elevated the job to a four-star position in 2008 and made the chief a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2011.The current chief of the National Guard Bureau is Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus of the Air Force.Operationally, the Guard troops currently being sent into U.S. cities are under the command of Gen. Gregory M. Guillot of U.S. Northern Command, a four-star general who takes his orders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.Where are Guard units located?The Army National Guard and the Air National Guard have units in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.How large is the force, and what does it do?More than 430,000 soldiers and airmen serve in the National Guard and operate akin to a reserve component of the active-duty force, typically reporting for duty one weekend a month and two weeks a year.Beyond those obligations, they can be mobilized on active duty for specific periods by a state or territorial governor for support operations such as responding to natural disasters or civil unrest.The White House can mobilize Guard troops under Title 10 of the U.S. Code for national missions — including overseas deployment to serve in wars — over the objection of state and territorial governors. (The District of Columbia National Guard reports to the federal government, as the capital does not have a governor.)The Guard also participates in training foreign allies and partners in more than 100 countries under the State Partnership Program, which evolved from a Cold War-era initiative to help former Soviet states operate their own military forces as newly democratic nations. Troops participating in the program often spend their two weeks of active federal service deployed to a partner nation, working with the same units to build relationships over repeat visits.When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian military leaders often turned to their longtime partners in the California National Guard for assistance.Has the federal government mobilized Guard troops for domestic missions before?Yes.The Guard has been federally mobilized at least 10 times since World War II, according to a recent Guard document.Five of the mobilizations were in support of racial desegregation efforts and the protection of civil rights: at schools in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957-58; Oxford, Miss., in 1962; twice in Alabama in 1963, and again in 1965 to protect civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery. Until this year, the 1965 mobilization was the last time a president federalized a state’s National Guard without the cooperation of a governor.Three federal Guard mobilizations were in response to riots: in Detroit in 1967; in multiple cities in 1968 after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of police officers who had assaulted Rodney King, a Black motorist.Another federal mobilization was in response to a strike by Postal Service workers in New York in 1970, and another was to restore order in the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.Have domestic deployments gone badly before?Yes.In 1970, the mobilization of Guard soldiers by Gov. James A. Rhodes, Republican of Ohio, ended tragically when troops opened fire on students who were peacefully protesting the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University. The soldiers killed four students and wounded nine unarmed protesters, who were all in their late teens and early 20s.Neither the governor nor any of the Guardsmen who shot students were found criminally liable for the shootings.How many Guard troops are federally mobilized right now?The exact number is unclear.According to the National Guard Bureau, its troops can have dozens of federal missions at any given time to include “disaster relief, defense support of civilian authorities, training missions” and “community engagement.”The bureau on Monday referred questions about the number of troops who are currently deployed on the order of the president to the Army component of U.S. Northern Command, which then referred questions to the defense secretary’s office.The defense secretary’s press office on Tuesday referred those questions back to the Guard task force in Washington, D.C., and to a U.S. Northern Command website for what it calls the “federal protective mission” in the United States.Here’s what we do know: In June, 2,000 members of the California National Guard were mobilized to Los Angeles to quell immigration protests. In July, Mr. Trump authorized the deployment of Guard troops to immigration facilities in 20 states.In August, Mr. Trump federalized the local police in Washington and mobilized troops to fight crime, even though violent crime was falling in the city. Later that month, he directed the Defense Department to create a mobile Guard unit that could be sent anywhere in the country for “ensuring public safety and order.”In September, the president signed an order authorizing the use of the National Guard in Memphis and said he would consider similar deployments in Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans.As of Oct. 1, there were still nearly 2,200 Guard troops deployed in Washington, with more than 950 from the D.C. National Guard. A majority of the troops patrolling the capital are normally based in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.Late Sunday, a federal judge blocked Mr. Trump from sending California National Guard troops to Portland, Ore. Texas National Guard troops arrived in the Chicago area on Tuesday and were expected to deploy by Wednesday.Do Guard troops on federal orders still get paid during the government shutdown?The National Guard receives state and federal funding, but troops are paid by their state legislatures when mobilized by governors. Those on federal orders will not be paid until congressional funding is restored.Oct. 6, 2025, 2:06 p.m. ETJudge Karin J. Immergut during her Senate confirmation hearing in 2018.Credit...Win McNamee/Getty ImagesWhen President Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to Portland hit a major snag over the weekend, it did so at the hands of one of his judicial nominees, Judge Karin Immergut of the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon.“This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” wrote Judge Immergut, 64, in a Saturday order rejecting the administration’s claims that it needed military support to protect federal property and enforce immigration law, what she called an “extraordinary measure.”Arguments made by Mr. Trump’s Justice Department, she continued, “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation.”Hours earlier, after a Friday hearing before Judge Immergut, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff who is the architect of Mr. Trump’s push to deploy U.S. soldiers on their own soil, said the problem lay elsewhere. “Far-left Democrat judges,” he said, were obstructing the administration’s attempt to “dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”But Judge Immergut is anything but a far-left judge. When Mr. Trump first nominated her to the federal bench in 2018, she arrived with strong conservative credentials, and her career shows a willingness to pursue cases no matter which party’s ox is gored. As a lawyer during the 1990s, she served under Ken Starr during his investigation of President Bill Clinton.She personally questioned Monica Lewinsky about the details of her affair with Mr. Clinton before a grand jury, successfully eliciting fine-grained specifics of their sexual encounters that critics would later call salacious when they appeared in Mr. Starr’s report.During the next two decades, she built a career as a federal prosecutor, first in California and then in Oregon. She prosecuted white-collar fraudsters, money launderers and drug traffickers. In 2003, she was chosen by President George W. Bush to be the U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon, supervising dozens of prosecutors and overseeing high-profile terrorism cases.As a prosecutor, Judge Immergut was “incredibly hard-working” and “apolitical in her approach,” said Billy J. Williams, who has known her since the 1990s and also went on to lead Oregon’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, first under President Obama and then continuing through Mr. Trump’s first term. “When she’s on the bench, she’s an incredible listener who isn’t afraid, in the moment, to either make a statement or ask deeper questions. She’s always prepared.”Scott Asphaug, who also worked under Judge Immergut during her time as Oregon’s chief federal prosecutor, said she told her team to “do the right thing, for the right reason.”“Our job was not simply to win,” he said. “Our job was to act in a judicious and just manner.”In an emergency hearing on Sunday night, Judge Immergut clarified her restraining order, barring the administration from sending in National Guard troops from any other state. Having already ruled that President Trump lacked a legal basis for sending the military, she warned the administration could be “in direct contravention” of her order, citing reports that troops from Texas and California could soon be on their way.“Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she asked. “Why is this appropriate?”Like Judge Immergut, Mr. Williams was working out of the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse in downtown Portland in the summer of 2020. That was when Attorney General Bill Barr sent federal agents to Portland to deal with crowds who had gathered around the courthouse to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police.Mr. Williams said that while parts of downtown Portland did resemble a “war zone” back in 2020, the circumstances of the current protests, which are smaller in scale and concentrated around an ICE building in South Portland, were “vastly different.”“I don’t fault ICE for doing their work,” he said. “I believe in law and order. And people get to protest it, so long as that’s done in a lawful manner. It’s a careful balance.”Judge Immergut’s ruling, he said, “was based on the facts of 2025, not 2020; what’s happening now is nothing like what happened then.”The judge has not yet made a final ruling on the merits of the case. Her temporary restraining order will expire later this month, and a trial is scheduled in Portland for the morning of October 29.The Trump administration has appealed Judge Immergut’s initial ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. And on social media, Mr. Miller is not letting Judge Immergut’s conservative background interfere with his attacks on the legitimacy of her rulings. Her order, he wrote, amounted to an attempt to “nullify the 2024 election by fiat.” On Monday, he called her a “district court judge with no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President,” and an “Oregon judge.”On Sunday, Mr. Trump addressed his selection of Judge Immergut more directly, telling reporters that “if they put judges like that on, I wasn’t well-served by the people who picked judges.”But while he seemed to be cognizant of the fact that one of his nominees had ruled against him, his awareness did not extend to that judge’s gender. Mr. Trump repeatedly referred to Judge Immergut as “he” and “him.”“That judge ought to be ashamed of himself,” he said.Shawn Hubler contributed reporting.