500 National Guard troops arrive in Chicago area amid resistance from Illinois governor

 Some 500 National Guard members have arrived in the Chicago area and are mobilized for an initial period of 60 days, despite an ongoing lawsuit challenging their deployment there, according to a statement Wednesday morning from U.S. Northern Command, a part of the Defense Department.

About 200 members from multiple units in the Texas National Guard and some 300 members from multiple units in the Illinois National Guard have been activated and sent to Chicagoland, the statement said. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has denounced the deployment as an unconstitutional invasion.

The troops are stationed at the Army Reserve center in Elwood, outside of Joliet, Illinois, about an hour southwest of Chicago.

“These forces will protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property,” U.S. Northern Command said in its statement.

On Monday, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago sued to block the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guard troops on the streets of Chicago.

In a statement Sunday, ahead of the National Guard’s arrival, Pritzker said, “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion.”

“It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops,” he said in the statement.

​“The brave men and women who serve in our national guards must not be used as political props,” he said. “This is a moment where every American must speak up and help stop this madness.”

President Donald Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday that Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “should be in jail” in an escalation of his conflict with the two Democratic officials.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” he said in the post. “Governor Pritzker also!”

Trump has threatened for weeks to send troops to Chicago as part of a crime-fighting and immigration effort, and Democrats have pushed back and said any deployment would be politically motivated against his perceived enemies and an overreach of authority.

NBC News has reached out to the White House for further comment.

Pritzker responded to the president in a post to X, saying, “I will not back down