Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow deployment of National Guard in Chicago area

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area, escalating President Donald Trump’s conflict with Democratic governors over using the military on U.S. soil.

The emergency appeal to the high court came after a judge prevented, for at least two weeks, the deployment of Guard members from Illinois and Texas to assist immigration enforcement. A federal appeals court refused to put the judge’s order on hold.

The conservative-dominated court has handed Trump repeated victories in emergency appeals since he took office in January, after lower courts have ruled against him and often over the objection of the three liberal justices. The court has allowed Trump to ban transgender people from the military, claw back billions of dollars of congressionally approved federal spending, move aggressively against immigrants and fire the Senate-confirmed leaders of independent federal agencies,

In the dispute over the Guard, U.S. District Judge April Perry said she found no substantial evidence that a “danger of rebellion” is brewing in Illinois during Trump’s immigration crackdown.

But Solicitor General D. John Sauer, Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer, urged the justices to step in immediately. Perry’s order, Sauer wrote, “impinges on the President’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel and property.”

Eleven people were arrested at a Friday morning protest outside a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview. Law enforcement had urged demonstrators to stay in designated “protest zones.”

In recent weeks, the Broadview ICE facility has been the site of tense protests, where federal agents have previously used tear gas and other chemical agents on protesters and journalists.

A federal judge in Oregon also has temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there.

Guard troops from several states also are patrolling the nation’s capital and Memphis, Tennessee.

In a California case, a judge in September said the deployment was illegal. By that point, just 300 of the thousands of troops sent there remained and the judge did not order them to leave.

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Associated Press writer Christine Fernando contributed to this report from Chicago.