US President Donald Trump yesterday called for jailing Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy military troops to the streets of the third-largest US city.
Trump’s call to imprison the two prominent opponents of his immigration crackdown comes as another high-profile political rival, former FBI director James Comey, was due to appear in court to face criminal charges that have been widely criticized as flimsy.
Trump has frequently called for jailing his opponents since he first entered politics in 2015, but Comey is the first to face prosecution.
Photo: AFP
On his social media platform, Trump accused Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker of failing to protect immigration officers who have been operating in Chicago.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump wrote, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.
Hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers have gathered at an army facility outside Chicago, over the objections of Pritzker, Johnson and other Democratic leaders in the state. Trump has threatened to deploy troops to more US cities as well.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released yesterday found that most Americans oppose the deployment of troops without an external threat.
The exact mission of the soldiers was not clear, although the Trump administration has an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in Chicago and protesters have frequently rallied at an immigration building outside Chicago in Broadview, Illinois.
The president has called Chicago a “hell hole” of crime, although police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including homicides.
In Memphis, Tennessee, police Chief Cerelyn Davis said a small group of commanders were already in the city, planning for the arrival of National Guard troops.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, has said troops would be deputized by the US Marshals Service to “play a critical support role” for local law enforcement, although that role has not been precisely defined yet.
Illinois and Chicago are urging a federal judge to stop “Trump’s long-declared ‘War’” on the state. A court hearing on their lawsuit is scheduled for today.
In Oregon, a judge over the weekend blocked the National Guard’s deployment to Portland.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS