‘We are the troops’: Chicago braces for Trump’s National Guard plan

On the South Side of Chicago, few people seemed braced for President Donald Trump’s troops.

But many here would tell you about another battle – one for the souls of the young.

We drove through neighbourhoods notorious for their levels of violent crime. In one, Bronzeville, we went to the spot where seven people were shot and wounded in a drive-by attack last weekend.

It was a block from Chicago Police HQ. The casualties were among at least 58 people shot, eight fatally, across the city over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Rob White, a coach to young men trying to reverse their slide into gangs, told us: “You can imagine how the residents feel like with this [stuff] happening right up under their nose,” referring to the attack that took place close to a giant, fortified police building.

On Friday, Trump said he had decided on another US city where he planned to deploy National Guard troops in what he said would be a bid to help combat crime – without revealing the location.

But Mr White’s colleague, Kanoya Ali, countered Trump’s assertion.

“The outcome [a drop in crime] is already happening,” said Mr Ali. “The troops are already here. We are the troops”.

The Labor Day crime numbers were cited by Trump earlier this week as part of his threat to militarise Chicago. He told reporters the National Guard would be “going in” to tackle what he called “out of control” crime.

It followed similar moves recently in Los Angeles and Washington DC. In Chicago, the Democrat-run city and state authorities have vowed to resist deployment by what Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called an “unhinged” president.

Violent crime in Chicago has in fact fallen significantly over the past two years.

Between January and June, the homicide rate was down by a third compared with the same period last year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.

But the overall levels in Chicago remain substantially higher than the average for many US cities.

Superintendent Larry Snelling, who heads the force at the Chicago Police Department, told us that homicides fell by 125 last year, with shooting victims down by more than 700.

“The National Guard does not have police powers. They don’t have the powers of arrest,” he said.

“There would have to be some serious coordination between the police department and the National Guard… If I could have more officers, [I’d] love to help, 100 per cent,” added Mr Snelling.

In a makeshift classroom, Mr White, the coach, launched into an extraordinary soliloquy. Sitting around a table were a dozen young men, all participants in Chicago CRED, a non-profit with an aim to reduce gun violence.

Mr White asked for shows of hands: “How many of y’all have been to the joint or been to the county?” Several hands went up.

“Keep your hand raised if you’ve been shot.” More hands.

Afterwards, we discussed the president’s proposal to deploy troops.

“Having the militia come in is not going to be the answer to this problem, right?” Mr White said.

But the lines became stark as we crossed into another neighbourhood, Canaryville.

Hanging from picket fences that separate lawns, Stars and Stripes mingled with flags for the pro-police campaign Blue Lives Matter.

Here, Trump’s threat to militarise a third American city resonated.

“I can’t wait till they get here,” Tom Stack, 68, said as he shouted across the street from us.

“You got to get rid of the criminals. This city’s crazy, there’s too much crime, it’s common sense,” he said.

According to Mr White, the problem was in part caused by the funding cuts that the Trump administration has made to crime prevention programmes in Chicago and elsewhere.

It is now an acute complaint by the Democrats who run the city, saying that funding for programmes targeting weapons trafficking from states with looser gun laws than Illinois were crucial in stemming the rise of violent crime.

Trump has previously defended federal funding cuts for similar crime prevention projects, accusing Democrat-led cities of “radical left” or “woke” criminal justice policies.

On Saturday, Trump appeared to again threaten sending troops to Chicago.

In a post on Truth Social, the president shared an image evoking the film Apocalypse Now. The post reads: “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning …’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”

While Trump may deploy National Guard troops in a crackdown on violent crime, he could also order them to support a major immigration enforcement operation in the city. Chicago’s Latino population is the city’s second largest racial or ethnic group, with more than 800,000 residents, according to US Census data.

In one of Chicago’s major Latino communities, Little Village, there are flags raised ready to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. But there is also anxiety, with many fearing agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could soon begin sweeping raids.

Outside a local packaging factory, dozens of workers are now into their thirteenth week of a strike. They are asking, among other demands, for a written guarantee from their employer that they will be protected from unwarranted workplace raids.

On the picket line, Arturo Landa, a mechanic, said he is concerned about ICE agents targeting the community.

“We’ve seen a lot of things. They are stopping people [in other cities], and the new administration doesn’t care if someone has their documents. They are discriminating on people’s skin,” he said.

The Trump administration, which is continuing ICE raids in Los Angeles and Washington DC, has repeatedly said it is targeting undocumented migrants who are in the country illegally and delivering on its promise to deport them.

In Chicago, concern that the city could be the next to see major immigration raids has prompted organisers to postpone next week’s El Grito Chicago, the city’s official festival for Mexican Independence Day.

In a message on social media, they wrote: “It was a painful decision, but holding El Grito Chicago at this time puts the safety of our community at stake – and that’s a risk we are unwilling to take.”