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US President Donald Trump authorised deployment of troops to Chicago after a federal agent shot an allegedly armed motorist there on Saturday, while a judge blocked the Republican leader’s attempt to send the military into Portland, another Democratic-run city.
The escalating crisis across the country pits Trump’s increasingly militarised anti-crime and migration crackdown against opposition Democrats who accuse him of an authoritarian power grab.
“President Trump has authorised 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets” in Chicago, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement, after weeks of the Republican threats to send troops to the Midwestern city over the wishes of local leaders.
“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin called the move a “shameful chapter in our nation’s history”, adding that the “President is not intent on fighting crime. He is intent on spreading fear.”
Read more‘I couldn’t breathe’: ICE agents fire tear gas at peaceful protesters in Chicago suburb
Chicago and Portland are the latest flashpoints in the Trump administration’s rollout of raids, following the deployment of troops to Los Angeles and Washington.
The raids have seen groups of masked, armed men in unmarked cars and armored vehicles target residential neighborhoods and businesses, sparking protests.
Trump has repeatedly called Portland “war-ravaged” and riddled with violent crime, but in Saturday’s court order, US District Judge Karin Immergut wrote “the President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts”.
Although the city has seen scattered attacks on federal officers and property, the Trump administration failed to demonstrate “that those episodes of violence were part of an organised attempt to overthrow the government as a whole”, Immergut wrote in granting a temporary restraining order.
Protests in Portland did not pose a “danger of rebellion” and “regular law enforcement forces” could handle such incidents, Immergut said.
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Oregon Senator Ron Wyden applauded the order, saying the “victory supports what Oregonians already know: we don’t need or want Donald Trump to provoke violence by deploying federal troops in our state.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote on social media that the judge’s order was “legal insurrection” and accused local leaders in Oregon of conducting an “organised terrorist attack on the federal government”.
‘Operation Midway Blitz’
Earlier Saturday, a federal officer in Chicago shot a motorist after law enforcement agents were “boxed in by 10 cars”, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
“Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen,” she said.
AFP could not independently verify the DHS version of the event.
The agency said the motorist “drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds”, but Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt told the Sun-Times newspaper that she was found in fair condition and taken to a local hospital.
McLaughlin also accused Chicago police of “leaving the shooting scene” with officers refusing “to assist us in securing the area”.
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Chicago police told local broadcaster Fox 32 that officers responded to the scene but the department “is not involved in the incident or its investigation. Federal authorities are investigating this shooting.”
Following the shooting, protesters who had gathered chanting “ICE go home!” were met with tear gas and pepper balls, temporarily dispersing before returning, the Sun-Times reported.
Protesters left after federal agents vacated the scene.
Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” was launched in Chicago last month, and Saturday’s shooting is not the first time federal agents have opened fire.
Department of Homeland Security officials said ICE officers shot and killed 38-year-old immigrant Silverio Villegas Gozalez during a traffic stop on September 12, accusing him of allegedly trying to flee the scene and dragging an ICE officer with the vehicle.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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