Trump Hints at Invoking Insurrection Act Amid Rising Immigration Tensions
US President Donald Trump has gestured that he could bring the Insurrection Act, a little- habituated 1807 law allowing the deployment of military forces on American soil, as his administration intensifies immigration enforcement in major metropolises.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he was prepared to use the 1807 Insurrection Act “if necessary,” citing the need to maintain law and order.
“So far, it hasn’t been necessary,” he said. “But if people are being killed, if courts or local leaders are holding us up, then yes, I would invoke it. We have to make sure our cities are safe.”
The warning comes as National Guard colors and civil officers are being dispatched to metropolises such as Chicago and Portland, where pressures girding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement( ICE) operations have sparked frequent demurrers.
In Portland, legal challenges by megacity officers and civil rights groups led a civil judge to temporarily block the deployment of National Guard colors on Sunday.
Pritzker: “The Trump administration is following a playbook: Cause chaos, c`reate fear and confusion, make it seem that peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act.” pic.twitter.com/bSlHVEaQPo
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) October 6, 2025
Chicago, however, did not see the same judicial resistance. Trump’s plan to send 300 National Guard personnel is moving ahead, with an additional 200 troops from Texas expected by Wednesday.
Both cities have become focal points in the administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Protesters regularly clash with ICE officers, while local leaders continue to resist what they describe as federal overreach.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, vowed to oppose Trump’s approach. “We will use every lever to protect the people of Illinois,” he said Monday, calling it an “authoritarian march.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also stepped up resistance, signing an executive order to create “ICE-free zones” across the city.
The order prohibits federal agents from using designated city-owned spaces for immigration enforcement.
“We have a rogue, reckless group of heavily armed, masked individuals roaming throughout our city that are not accountable to the people of Chicago,” Johnson said in a sharply worded statement.
Trump has preliminarily leaned on civil forces during domestic unrest. In June, National Guard colors were transferred to Los Angeles, followed by a deployment to Washington, D.C., in August, drawing review from lawmakers and civil rights lawyers.
Supporters argue that Trump’s measures aim to restore order and safeguard ICE officers.
Critics counter that they amount to a dangerous expansion of executive authority, raising questions about the use of military power in domestic affairs.
As legal battles continue and more troops prepare to arrive, the debate over federal authority versus states’ rights is heating up, placing the Insurrection Act once again at the heart of national controversy.
