A federal judge has agreed to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the Trump administration’s attempted deployment of the National Guard in Illinois last year.
According to U.S. District Judge April Perry, the Trump administration sought the dismissal of the case, and she agreed, finding the issue was now moot after the Supreme Court refused to allow President Donald Trump to deploy the Guard in Illinois.
The city of Chicago and the state of Illinois had filed suit to prevent that deployment, which would have occurred during “Operation: Midway Blitz,” an operation featuring enhanced federal immigration enforcement actions in the state.
A judge blocked the deployment in October, and the Supreme Court did the same in December, though the Trump administration had already withdrawn National Guard troops from the state by that time.
A federal judge granted a request to temporarily block a National Guard deployment in Chicago, saying the move violates the U.S. Constitution.
In a statement, the Chicago Department of Law said it welcomed the ruling by the judge.
“We welcome the court’s ruling today that the Trump Administration’s deployment orders are no longer operational and cannot be used to federalize the National Guard. There was never a lawful basis to deploy the National Guard into Chicago for federal immigration enforcement.The orders represented a federal overreach that threatened the local rule of law,” officials said.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s actions in the state during the operation, was also supportive of the ruling.
“Today’s order concluding Illinois v. Trump confirms what’s been clear to the people of our state from the beginning: Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to occupy our streets was a reckless and illegal abuse of power,” he said.
Trump has continued to argue he has the legal authority to deploy the National Guard to assist with immigration enforcement, and has said he would consider attempting another deployment “in a much different and stronger form” in Illinois and other locations.
