Protests erupt in Washington, DC and Chicago against troop deployment and deportation threats
Several thousand protesters marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to demand that U.S. President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city’s streets.
Protesters at the “We Are All D.C.” march chanted slogans denouncing Trump and carried posters, some of which read, “Free DC” and “Resist Tyranny.”
Trump said he deployed the troops to “re-establish law, order, and public safety.”
He also placed the capital district’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to police the city’s streets.
More than 2,000 troops, including from six Republican-led states, are patrolling the city. It is unclear when their mission will end, though the Army this week extended orders for the D.C. National Guard through November 30.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would also deploy National Guard troops to fight crime in Chicago.
In a social media post depicting himself as a U.S. military officer from the movie “Apocalypse Now,” Trump wrote, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” above an image of the president in uniform juxtaposed against flames and Chicago’s skyline.
On Saturday, however, thousand demonstrators marched past Trump Tower as the sun began to set in downtown Chicago, protesting against threats to flood the city with immigration agents and National Guard troops.
