Updated October 6, 2025 at 12:00 PM MDT
Illinois and the city of Chicago are suing the Trump administration over its effort to deploy National Guard troops in the state.
They want a judge to block the administration from federalizing the Illinois National Guard, and also have it barred from sending troops from any other states to Illinois.
"The deployment of federalized national guard troops into Illinois will cause great and immediate harm," the filing reads.
The lawsuit — filed on Monday — caps a dizzying weekend of attempts by Trump to send Guard members out to different states.
A federal judge late Sunday night blocked the Trump administration from deploying any federalized National Guard units to Oregon, including hundreds of out-of-state soldiers. It came hours after the government dispatched California National Guard members to Oregon.
Oregon and Portland went back to the court — this time with California as an additional party to the lawsuit — and asked U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut for a new temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from sending the California National Guard to Oregon.
In her ruling, Immergut barred any National Guard members from being relocated from any state for service in Oregon. One day earlier, she had temporarily blocked the Trump administration from federalizing the Oregon National Guard.
"I am certainly troubled by now hearing that both California and Texas are being sent to Oregon, which does appear to be in direct contradiction of my order," Immergut said in her order, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The ruling came as Portland and Chicago were preparing for the possibility that National Guard members would be deployed to their streets, as President Trump moves ahead with his plan to send troops to Democratic-run U.S. cities that he says require help to control crime and protect federal law enforcement officers.
On Saturday, the White House said Trump "authorized" the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard members, after vowing for weeks to send federal forces into Chicago.
Guard members will be used to protect federal property as well as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Federal Protective Service agents and other federal employees, according to a copy of a federal memo viewed by NPR. They will be sent to places where there are "violent demonstrations" in the state or where they are likely to occur based on "current threat assessments," the memo said.
Also over the weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he had authorized the deployment of 400 Texas National Guard members at Trump's request.
A broader picture is taking shape
Already this year, the Trump administration has sent National Guard members to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trump has said he also intends to send troops to Memphis with the backing of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
The latest effort comes against the wishes of the Democratic governors of Oregon and Illinois, Tina Kotek and JB Pritzker, who say the Guard deployment is unnecessary and will escalate tensions.
On Saturday, Pritzker wrote in a post on X that the "Trump Administration's Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will." Pritzker added: "It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will."
In a later post, Pritzker said no one from the administration had contacted him about the deployment of Texas National Guard members to Illinois. "We must now start calling this what it is: Trump's Invasion," he wrote.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement on Saturday that Trump had activated the Illinois National Guard troops "[a]midst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness" in Chicago in order to "protect federal officers and assets," WBEZ reported. Trump has said National Guard deployments are in an effort to fight crime, despite violent crime being down in Chicago and other cities.
It came on the same day that Border Patrol agents shot a woman in Chicago. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the woman was one of a group of drivers who rammed federal agents with their vehicles. The woman, Marimar Martinez, was released from the hospital and is now in the custody of the FBI, DHS said in a statement. No agents were seriously injured, according to McLaughlin.
A judge blocks Trump's effort to deploy the National Guard in Portland — twice
Immergut's ruling late Sunday was the second time over the weekend that she had temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Oregon.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek blasted the government's actions in a statement after the ruling. "President Trump's actions are an effort to occupy and incite cities and states that don't share his politics," Kotek said, "and I believe that we should expect him to continue to push the limits of his authority."
On Saturday, Immergut ruled that the government had failed to meet the threshold for declaring that recent protests outside an ICE facility in Portland constituted a rebellion.
Immergut, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, said protests at the facility since July were generally limited to fewer than 30 people and were "largely sedate." She added that the city's police force was trained in crowd management and could seek the assistance of other law enforcement agencies — and even the National Guard — if it needed to.
The Trump administration federalized 200 members of the Oregon National Guard last Sunday for a 60-day deployment, according to a memo sent to Gov. Kotek from the Department of Defense.
As in Chicago, Trump was planning to send the troops to Portland over the objections of state and local leaders.
Trump said Sunday he hadn't seen the judge's order, but that "that judge ought to be ashamed of themselves."
Despite the judge's ruling, Guard members began traveling to Oregon, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He said in a post on X on Sunday that the Trump administration had sent 300 California National Guard personnel to the state's northern neighbor.
"They are on their way there now," Newsom wrote. "We are taking this fight back to court. The public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the President of the United States."
Kotek said that 101 California Guard members arrived on Saturday in Oregon and more were on their way.
Later on Sunday, Newsom praised the judge's decision blocking the California troop deployment. "We just won in court — again," he wrote in a post on X. "Trump's abuse of power won't stand."
Gigi Douban and Tom Bowman contributed reporting.
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