What to know about National Guard deployments in Chicago and Portland

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A federal judge quizzed a Trump administration attorney Thursday on the role National Guard troops would play if deployed in Chicago to assist ICE agents with immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge April Perry was hearing arguments in a packed downtown Chicago courtroom from attorneys for the state of Illinois and the Justice Department.

Perry pressed Justice Department lawyer Eric Hamilton on whether National Guard troops would only be stationed around federal buildings or also in neighborhoods, schools and hospitals. Hamilton responded that troops also could be used to “protect ICE agents” in the field.

Some Guard members ordered to Illinois by President Donald Trump now are protecting federal property near Chicago.

On Wednesday, 200 Texas Guard troops sent to Illinois started working in the Chicago area, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details not made public.

The spokesperson did not say where specifically the troops were sent.

Meanwhile, two dozen Democrat-led states have joined a legal challenge to National Guard deployment in Portland, Oregon.

Here are where things stand now:

Thursday's hearing before Perry was over a request to block the deployment of Illinois and Texas Guard members in Illinois.

Chicago and Illinois filed a lawsuit on Monday to stop the deployments, calling them unnecessary and illegal. In a court filing in the lawsuit, the city and state say protests at a temporary ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement.”

Trump, meanwhile, has portrayed Chicago as a lawless “hellhole” of crime, though statistics show a significant recent drop in crime.

Christopher Wells, a lawyer with the Illinois attorney general’s office, began Thursday's hearing by urging Perry to stop the National Guard deployment that “threatens the careful balance of our Constitutional system.”

Hamilton characterized Chicago as beset by what he called “tragic lawlessness,” noting a recent confrontation in which two residents were accused of using their vehicles to ram into and box in a Border Patrol vehicle. One person was shot and wounded by a Border Patrol agent.

All twenty-four other states with a Democratic attorney general or governor signed on to a court filing Wednesday to support California and Oregon’s legal challenge to deploying the Guard in Portland.

“By calling forth troops when there is no invasion to repel, no rebellion to suppress, and when state and local law enforcement are fully able to execute the law,” the filing with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says, “the President flouts the vision of our Founders, undermines the rule of law, and sets a chilling precedent that puts the constitutional rights of all Americans at risk.”

Trump wants to send Guard troops to Portland to address ongoing protests at an immigration processing facility in Oregon's largest city, which he has called a “war zone.”

Troops have yet to be deployed there.

An appeals court has scheduled arguments for Thursday in the government’s bid to overcome a lower court’s ruling blocking the Guard’s deployment.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell signed an executive order Wednesday affirming the independence of the city's police department and promising a system for reporting alleged abuses by soldiers and federal agents.

The first Guard troops sent to Chicago by Trump arrived Tuesday at an Army training center outside the city. AP saw military personnel in uniforms with the Texas National Guard patch at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles (88 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, on Wednesday.

Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has said some 300 of the state’s Guard troops were to be federalized and deployed to the nation’s third-largest city, along with 400 others from Texas.

Pritzker has denounced Trump’s plan to put troops on the ground, saying in a lawsuit that it is “unlawful and dangerous.”

Trump claims troops are needed to protect federal immigration enforcement efforts and crack down on crime.

Since the start of his second term, the Republican president has sent or discussed sending troops to 10 cities, including Portland, Oregon; Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The exact timing of National Guard activity in Memphis was murky. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the state Military Department said some Tennessee Guard members were already assisting with community safety patrols, security and traffic control, while a Thursday update on the city's website said Guard patrols were slated to begin Friday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois also has sued Trump and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and several of the agencies’ leaders have unleashed a campaign of violence and intimidation against peaceful protesters and journalists during demonstrations outside the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois.

Federal agents have repeatedly fired tear gas, pepper balls and other projectiles toward crowds at the facility, which sits about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago. At least seven people have faced federal charges after being arrested in those clashes.

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Associated Press reporters across the U.S. contributed, including Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Jack Brook in New Orleans; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Josh Boak and Konstantin Toropin in Washington.