President Donald Trump has escalated his criticism of Chicago’s crime record, saying he is prepared to dispatch National Guard troops and federal law-enforcement agents to the nation’s third-largest city. The White House move would mirror deployments already under way in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, and could include more than 200 Homeland Security officers for a month-long operation, according to a New York Times report cited by local officials. Illinois officials are vowing to resist. Governor J.B. Pritzker said the president lacks the legal authority to federalize the state’s Guard and warned that “action will be met with a response.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called the proposal unconstitutional and unnecessary, while Attorney General Kwame Raoul said his office is drafting litigation should troops arrive. Chicago police superintendent Larry Snelling added that city officers would neither assist nor obstruct any federal deployment. Community groups are organising legal aid and protests, reflecting deep unease in the heavily Democratic city. Some residents and Republican lawmakers support the idea, arguing that additional manpower is needed to curb violence. Others fear that a large federal presence, especially one involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would erode trust in law enforcement and heighten tensions in immigrant neighbourhoods. Crime statistics complicate the political clash. Chicago has registered 1,229 shootings this year through Aug. 25, yet fatal shootings have fallen 36% from a year earlier and the city’s July homicide rate of 1.66 per 100,000 residents sits below those of Washington, New Orleans and Kansas City. Legal scholars say any unilateral military deployment would face challenges under the Constitution and the 19th-century Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of armed forces in domestic law enforcement.