Officials have confirmed that the Trump administration is seeking to use Naval Station Great Lakes in Lake County for immigration operations, which could result in ICE agents operating out of it.
Naval Station Great Lakes Commanding Officer Captain Stephen M. Yargosz said in an internal email on Monday that agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes from September 2-30.
“These operations are similar to what occurred in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Same DHS team,” Yargosz said in the email, according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times.
“… This morning I received a call that there is the potential to also support National Guard units. Not many details on this right now. Mainly a lot of concerns and questions,” Yargosz said.
The email said the operation would focus on downtown Chicago and formal approval was still required from the U.S. Defense Secretary.
A spokesperson for the base confirmed the Department of Homeland Security asked the Naval Station Great Lakes for “limited support” in regard to immigration operations.
That support was in the form of “facilities, infrastructure, and other logistical needs to support DHS operations.”
No decisions have been made on the request and the base has not received an official request to support a National Guard deployment, the spokesperson said.
The City of Waukegan said Thursday that it is aware of the reports regarding federal operations in the region.
“We want to assure our residents and our neighbors that any activities at Naval Station Great Lakes are coordinated the federal level and do not involve local law enforcement,” the city said in a statement.
“Our priority remains the safety, well-being, and trust of all residents, and we will continue to communicate openly and clearly as more information becomes available,” the statement added.
U.S. Representative Brad Schneider said the president’s threat to send National Guard troops to Chicago and “parade masked ICE agents” through Naval Station Great Lakes is an “unnecessary, unacceptable, and dangerous action.”
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Chicago would likely be next for a law enforcement takeover “just like we did [in] D.C.”
The president said Chicago is a “great city” but it’s “very dangerous” and he “hates to see what’s happened in Chicago.”
“Chicago is a mess. We’ll straighten that one out probably next, that’ll be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough,” Trump said.
Trump on Monday appeared to shift his stance following severe opposition to the plan by leaders in Illinois.
“You really want to be asked to go. I hate to barge into a city and be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker, he ought to spend more time in the gym, actually. Guy is a disaster,” Trump said on Monday, adding that Chicago is a “killing field.”
Governor J.B. Pritzker said that he is not afraid but is also not daring the Trump administration to come to the state.
“I’m just saying, they don’t have a right. Federal and state law — separate endeavors. They don’t have a right to do the things they’re threatening to do,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker said Trump was attempting to create “chaos” to distract from his problems.
“Trump and Republicans are trying to distract from the pain they are causing working families–from tariffs raising the prices of everyday goods to stripping away healthcare and food from millions of Americans,” the governor said.
Pritzker said Trump used Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. as his testing ground for “authoritarian overreach” and is now “openly flirting” with the idea of taking over other states and cities.
“Trump’s goal is to incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts — all to create a justification to further abuse his power. He is playing a game and creating a spectacle for the press to play along with,” Pritzker said.
“We don’t play those games in Illinois. Our commitment to law and order is delivering real results. Crime rates are improving. Homicides are down by more than 30% in Chicago in the last year alone,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, along with community leaders, held a press conference on Monday afternoon to “emphasize that there is no emergency” that requires Trump to send military deployments to Chicago.
“You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually. If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law,” Pritzker said.
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said it comes “as no surprise” that Trump is “once again attacking Chicago.
She said that “doesn’t change that Trump’s continuing pattern of politicizing and misusing our nation’s military for his own partisan gain and to crush dissent is deeply disturbing, is un-American and has no place in any of our cities.”
“Forcing the military, uninvited, into Chicago to intimidate Americans in their own communities does not make our nation stronger, it simply distracts the military from executing its core mission of keeping Americans safe from real adversaries who wish us harm,” Duckworth said.