U.S. Border Patrol personnel shot an armed woman in Chicago on Saturday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said, as the governor of Illinois said the Trump administration plans to federalize and deploy hundreds of National Guard to the state.
The woman was shot after scores of protesters faced off against federal immigration agents on Chicago’s southwest side.
No law enforcement officers were seriously injured in the incident in which a group that included the woman rammed cars into vehicles used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
The woman, a U.S. citizen who was not identified, drove herself to the hospital, according to the statement. No additional information was immediately available about the woman’s condition. ICE agents fired pepper spray and loaded rubber bullets as part of heated exchanges with protesters on Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a post on X that she was sending additional “special operations” to control the scene in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighbourhood.
On multiple occasions, demonstrators sitting on the ground attempting to block ICE vehicles from carrying detainees into the facility have been repelled by heavily armed ICE agents using physical force, chemical munitions and rubber bullets, evoking combat scenes.
Protesters have decried what they call similar heavy-handed policing in other Democratic-run cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore.
‘Call up your troops, or we will’
Also on Saturday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the state’s National Guard received word from the Pentagon in the morning that 300 of its members would be called up. He did not specify when or where they would be deployed, but President Donald Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago.
“This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,” Pritzker said in a statement.
“It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
A spokesperson for the governor’s office said she could not provide additional details. The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to questions about Pritzker’s statement.
WATCH | Pritzker slams Trump’s threat to deploy National Guard to Chicago:
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago to address crime, but in a news conference Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said there is no emergency warranting the deployment of the National Guard and warned he may pursue legal action if Trump proceeds.
The escalation of federal law enforcement in Illinois follows similar deployments in other parts of the country. Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile Tennessee National Guard troops are expected to help Memphis police.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued to stop the deployment in Los Angeles and won a temporary block in federal court. The Trump administration has appealed that ruling that the use of the guard was illegal, and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has indicated that it believes the government is likely to prevail.
Pritzker called Trump’s move in Illinois a “manufactured performance” that would pull the state’s National Guard troops away from their families and regular jobs.
“For Donald Trump, this has never been about safety. This is about control,” said the governor, who also noted that state, county and local law enforcement have been coordinating to ensure the safety of an ICE facility on the outskirts of Chicago.
