October 6, 2025: National Guard deployments

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A flight carrying members of the Texas National Guard appears to have arrived in Indiana after being deployed on the orders of President Donald Trump to conduct operations in the neighboring state of Illinois, according to public flight tracking records.

Earlier Monday evening, a law enforcement source said Texas guard members activated by Trump to conduct public safety operations in Chicago departed the Fort Bliss military installation in El Paso, Texas, on a US military Globemaster C-17 transport plane.

It’s unclear what specific role the Texas guard may eventually play in Chicago.

On Monday, Illinois officials sued the federal government to stop the deployment of troops. A judge has given the Justice Department a deadline of midnight Wednesday to respond to the lawsuit.

Members of the Texas National Guard are now en route to Illinois following the Trump administration’s ordering of troops from the state to conduct operations in the Chicago area, a law enforcement source familiar with the operations tells CNN.

As part of the deployment, a US military Globemaster C-17 transport plane departed the Fort Bliss military installation in El Paso, Texas, Monday evening, and is currently headed to Illinois, the source said.

Earlier Monday evening, Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted a photo of Texas guards members carrying riot gear boarding a military transport aircraft.

Karin Immergut (left) and Richard A. Hertling (right) are sworn in during a judicial nomination hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee October 24, 2018, in Washington, DC.

US District Judge Karin Immergut issued rulings this weekend temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon.

Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller described Immergut’s rulings as “legal insurrection,” while the president said the judge “ought to be ashamed of himself,” misstating the judge’s gender.

Immergut was appointed by Trump to the federal bench during the president’s first term. She has received bipartisan praise throughout her career, issuing rulings that could be viewed as benefiting both left- and right-wing causes.

Born in Brooklyn, Immergut earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1982 and her juris doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1987, according to her district court biography.

She has said her experience with big-city crime partly inspired her to pursue a career in law. Among a number of positions over the years, Immergut assisted in the investigation that led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted this photo of Texas National Guard troops deploying.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted a picture of several Texas National Guard members – outfitted in fatigues, helmets and handheld shields – boarding a military aircraft, writing that the troops are “deploying now” ahead of the anticipated arrival of National Guard members in Illinois Monday night.

His state’s National Guard “began their deployment as they were loading on planes in Texas, boarding for flights to parts of the country where they will be able to safeguard ICE officials and other federal officials as they try to enforce the laws of the United States of America,” Abbott told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday night.

The deployment comes after Illinois and the city of Chicago sued the Trump administration earlier Monday, calling the plans to move troops from the Illinois and Texas National Guards into Chicago “illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional.”

A federal judge has given the administration two days to respond to the lawsuit, but she didn’t immediately block the deployment.

Federal law enforcement agents confront with demonstrators protesting outside of an immigrant processing center with a barrage of tear gas and pepper balls on September 27 in Broadview, Illinois.

In a release Monday, the Illinois arm of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), accused the Trump administration of interfering “with the most cherished and fundamental rights enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religious belief, and the right to peaceably assemble and express disagreement with the government,” following demonstrations throughout the city.

The release, accompanied by a lawsuit brought by a group of various Chicago area locals, names several people of the Trump administration, like Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi as defendants.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, responded to CNN in a statement about the lawsuit, saying: “For weeks, federal law enforcement officers have been attacked and assaulted by left-wing rioters. Amidst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, law enforcement officers have taken appropriate action to protect themselves and federal facilities. Individuals are free to peacefully protest, but they cannot violently riot or attack law enforcement without consequence.”

“Never in modern times has the federal government undermined bedrock constitutional protections on this scale or usurped states’ police power by directing federal agents to carry out an illegal mission against the people for the government’s own benefit,” the lawsuit said.

“Many civilians and press are being injured and sickened, to the point of serious injuries. Some are being randomly singled out for arrest.
They are tackled to the ground, handcuffed, and marched into the Broadview ICE facility, where they are detained incommunicado for hours,” it added.

A federal judge questioned the federal government’s arguments that its use of force was justified against protesters, faith leaders and journalists at protests outside the Chicago-area detention unit, according to the Associated Press.

“I don’t believe there’s anything … I’ve read or anything in the complaint that these affected individuals were doing anything except peacefully showing up at various facilities in Illinois and were not engaged in violent protests,” Sara Ellis said at a hearing, the AP reported, in which attorneys for the U.S. government argued that people cannot engage in riots or attack federal agents.

As President Donald Trump continues efforts to federalize National Guard members across the US for deployment to cities he says are ravaged and in need of federal assistance, the administration is facing mounting legal pushback from states saying they don’t need — or want — any federal help.

Here are the latest developments:

• Illinois and Chicago sue: The state of Illinois and its largest city sued the Trump administration Monday, calling plans to move troops from the Illinois and Texas National Guards into Chicago “illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional.” A federal judge has given the administration two days to respond to the lawsuit, but she didn’t immediately block the deployment.

Some context: Over the weekend, Trump authorized 300 Illinois guard members to respond to Chicago to “protect federal officers and assets.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also volunteered 400 of his state’s troops for deployment at Trump’s discretion.

• Judge blocks Guard in Oregon … again: For the second time in two days, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Oregon delivered a blow to the president’s effort to send National Guard troops into Portland, temporarily blocking the deployment of any Guard troops in the US to the city.

A late-night ruling: The Sunday night decision expanded on a narrower Saturday ruling that prevented the administration from sending Oregon Guard troops to Portland. Sunday’s hearing was hastily scheduled, coming after Oregon and California officials objected to Trump’s reassignment of troops in Los Angeles to Portland in an apparent effort to circumvent the Saturday order.

• Insurrection Act threats: Trump suggested Monday he could invoke the Insurrection Act if courts continue to block his deployments, raising the prospect of using the centuries-old law to bypass unfavorable rulings. Several attorneys general have already pledged to take the administration to court should the president attempt to invoke the wartime authority.

In Monday’s hearing, US District Judge April Perry asked federal government lawyers where National Guard troops would be deployed in Chicago and in what capacity, according to Reuters.

The lawyers said that had not yet been determined, Reuters reported.

“The fact that you can’t get answers from the federal government right now shows how lawless this is,” said Christopher Wells, a lawyer in the Illinois attorney general’s office, according to Reuters reporting.

In addition to telling Perry that Texas National Guard troops were in transit to Chicago, federal lawyers said, according to Reuters, the administration could still deploy troops while it organizes a legal response to Illinois’s request for a temporary restraining order.

During Monday’s hearing, according to Reuters, Perry allowed the federal government to continue the deployment while it responds to the lawsuit.

Perry – a Biden appointee – said she was “also troubled by the lack of answers,” but the federal government was entitled to time to respond to the suit and had until Wednesday at midnight, Reuters reported.

The state argues the Trump administration has not met the legal conditions needed to allow it to federalize National Guard troops without Gov. JB Pritzker’s blessing and is violating the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law limiting the use of the military for domestic enforcement, Reuters reported.

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson accused President Donald Trump and his administration of undermining the American constitution by trying to use the National Guard in his city.

“This president wants to undermine the very constitution that we fought and died and bled for, and it’s incumbent upon all of us, and particularly the residents across this country, is to fight back,” Johnson told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday night.

The state of Illinois and Chicago on Monday sued the Trump administration over its move to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as the White House targets Democrat-led cities amid weeks of protests against the federal government’s immigration enforcement campaign.

The lawsuit came two days after the White House announced that president Trump had authorized sending 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to Chicago to “protect federal officers and assets,” reprising a strategy he first used against anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

“What this president is doing is illegal, it’s unconstitutional and it’s dangerous,” Johnson said Monday. “Nowhere in the country am I hearing mayors request that we occupy the cities in America with the military.”

The mayor said he is using every tool available to protect Chicagoans — like signing three “sweeping” executive orders.

“The brave women and men who signed up to protect our democracy did not do it with the idea of being used against the American people, and so we’re going to stand firm and resolute in protecting the interests of Chicagoans and, quite frankly, protecting our democracy.”

National Guard members stand outside of the Edward Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles on June 9.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the National Governors Association in a letter today, saying the organization is not doing enough to counter the Trump administration’s federalization of the National Guard in the face of “unprecedented assaults on the authority of states.”

“It should not be difficult for state leaders, regardless of partisan affiliation, to agree that politicizing our states’ National Guard and deploying the Guard from one state into another, over the objections of the home-state Governor, harms the interests of states,” he said in the letter.

If the association cannot take a stand, Newsom wrote, he will withdraw California’s membership and would encourage other states to do the same. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly dropped out of the association over the summer, with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer following several weeks later.

President Donald Trump departs the White House en route to Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday.

The Portland City Attorney issued a scathing response to a Department of Justice inquiry Monday, writing, “Does the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice care about the Constitution anymore?”

“In Portland, we appear to be witnessing the federal government engaging in unconstitutional uses of force in violation of the Fourth Amendment against otherwise peaceful demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights,” said City Attorney Robert Taylor.

He cited examples including veterans and elderly people shoved to the ground and “indiscriminate use of impact munitions to disperse an otherwise peaceful crowd.”

And it seems that “the federal government is engaging in prohibited viewpoint discrimination by targeting demonstrators based on the content of their speech, while favoring those with whom the federal government agrees,” he wrote.

The City Attorney implored the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division: “Please do not fail Portland and please do not fail America. Please investigate — and stop — the apparent First and Fourth Amendment violations occurring in Portland by the federal government.”

In response, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told CNN: “The facts haven’t changed: President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”

A Department of Justice spokesperson told CNN, “Portland has let lawlessness take hold now just like it did in 2020” and that the “DOJ has and continues to enforce civil rights for all Americans — including the people of Portland who deserve law and order.”

A protester stands draped in an American flag watches as law enforcement officers try to disperse protesters near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, on Sunday, October 5, 2025.

President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he could invoke the Insurrection Act in order to send US troops to Portland, Oregon.

The law allows the deployment of troops in the US in certain limited situations. First passed in 1792, it was last tweaked in 1871.

The Insurrection Act works in tandem with the Posse Comitatus Act, which was first passed in 1878 and generally prohibits the use of the military inside the US.

How would the Insurrection Act be invoked?

There are several options. First, a state’s governor or legislature can request it. That’s what happened in 1992, the last time the act was invoked. President George H.W. Bush got a request from then-Gov. Pete Wilson for help addressing riots in Los Angeles.

Officials in Chicago and Portland seem unlikely to request help.

Second, Trump could use an option that doesn’t require consent from a state. He could say he’s protecting state residents who are being deprived of a constitutional right. Or he could say he needs the military to enforce federal law.

The pertinent language includes this, which seems to give the president the final say:

Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.

Has the Insurrection Act been invoked over the objections of a governor?

Yes. During the Civil Rights era the Insurrection Act was invoked to help integrate schools, put down riots related to integration, and protect Civil Rights activists, according to a list compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice.

Marimar Martinez.

The driver shot by a CBP agent has been ordered released from custody pending trial, her attorney told CNN.

Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old American citizen, was shot at five times by a CBP agent Saturday. DHS and a charging complaint say that she deliberately rammed a federal law enforcement vehicle, and she’s been charged in federal court with “forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer.”

But Christopher Parente, her lawyer, disputed the government’s characterization of events. He told CNN that he had watched an agent’s body camera footage of the incident and that it included one agent saying to another, “Do something, b**ch” before engaging with Martinez.

“To me, that’s someone looking for a problem,” he said.

The video, he said, shows a CBP vehicle swerving into Martinez’ vehicle — not the other way around, as the charging complaint claims. Then, “within seconds” an officer jumped out of his vehicle and fired five rounds at Martinez.

CNN has not viewed the body camera footage and has requested it from DHS.

Martinez was taken from the hospital into FBI custody, he said. Now that she’s been released, she’s back in the hospital being treated. She has seven gunshot holes in her body, he said.

She has no criminal record, Parente added.

Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin had originally said Martinez was armed. Parente said that his client has a concealed-carry license and was legally carrying a firearm in her purse.

But she didn’t use the firearm in the incident, he said. Police later discovered the gun when they searched her vehicle after she called 911.

A member of the Latin Kings street gang has been charged in connection with a murder-for-hire plot targeting a senior law enforcement official involved in Border Patrol’s Operation “Midway Blitz”, according to court documents.

Juan Espinoza Martinez allegedly sent messages via snapchat offering $2,000 on information about the officer and a $10,000 reward for the killing of the officer, court documents say.

A release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois said Monday that Martinez’s initial court appearance has yet to be scheduled.

It is unclear if Martinez has an attorney.

“Based on my training and experience and knowledge of this investigation, I believe that ESPINOZA MARTINEZ, has offered, on behalf of the Latin Kings in Chicago, Illinois, to other members of the Latin Kings and others, a $2,000 reward for information related to Victim A and a $10,000 reward for the murder of Victim A,” a signed affidavit said.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called it a “cowardly and an act of war on the rule of law.”

“This case shows what Take Back America means: reclaiming our neighborhoods from violent thugs and criminal gangs,” Blanche said in a post on X. “We will hunt anyone who targets those who protect our borders, streets, and communities. Rest assured - threaten law enforcement and the full weight of the U.S. government will come for you.”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul pledged to fight back in the courts if President Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to American cities – an idea the president floated Monday afternoon.

“There is no insurrection,” Raoul told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “There’s peaceful protest.”

The only provocative acts in Chicago, he said, “have come by the hand of ICE and Border Patrol agents who have fired pepper balls and tear gas at law-abiding protesters, at journalists, and even at Chicago police officers who have had to wipe pepper spray out of their eyes.”

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield talks with reporters after a news conference in Portland on April 23.

Following comments from President Donald Trump that he might use the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to American cities, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said they’ve been “prepared for this moment” since the first day of the Trump administration.

“This is America. The United States military does not belong on our streets unless it’s extreme circumstances, and that’s what the judge found,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “You want to be creative, Mr. President? We’ll be creative right back and we’ll meet you in court.”

President Donald Trump formally authorized the deployment of at least 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to Chicago for 60 days, according to a presidential memorandum released Monday.

The deployment is aimed at protecting federal personnel and property amid what the administration describes as violent efforts to obstruct federal law enforcement in and around the city.

“I hereby call into Federal service at least 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, until the Governor of Illinois consents to a federally-funded mobilization,” the order says in part.

The White House said over the weekend Trump had authorized 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to “protect federal officers and assets” in Chicago.

The National Guard will be activated for 60 days, unless extended or withdrawn earlier at the discretion of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the order.

“To carry out this mission, the deployed National Guard personnel may perform those protective activities that the Secretary of War determines are reasonably necessary to ensure the execution of Federal law in Illinois, and to protect Federal property in Illinois,” the memo states.

US Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon asked protesters in Portland to remain peaceful in their demonstrations and not “take the bait” from the Trump administration, which he said is working to create an illusion of chaos in the city.

The president wants to “create the impression of chaos” at demonstrations outside the ICE facility in Portland to “justify more authoritarian power,” the Democratic senator said Monday on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

Merkley disputed characterizations by the administration that the state’s largest city is in “anarchy.”

“So far, the protesters have been very restrained, and I hope they continue to be because we do not want to give justification that allows Trump to have a win in court,” Merkley said.

The state of Oregon has been successful in its last two legal battles against the Trump administration, with one as recently as Sunday night, when a federal judge temporarily blocked a second attempt to deploy National Guard members to Portland.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents keep watch as people protest outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Broadview facility in Chicago, Illinois, on October 3.

President Donald Trump suggested Monday he could invoke the Insurrection Act if courts continue to block deployments of troops to cities nationwide, raising the prospect of using the centuries-old law to bypass unfavorable rulings.

“I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe,” he concluded.

Officials in Illinois and Oregon are waging legal battles against Trump’s efforts to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland.

Illinois and Chicago sued the administration on Monday, asking a federal court to halt the federalization of National Guard troops from that state and from Texas, calling the move “patently unlawful.”

On Sunday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard members to Portland for the second time.

Federal agents stand next to a gate outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview, Illinois, on September 30.

A federal judge has given the Trump administration two days to respond to Illinois’ lawsuit challenging the president’s plan to send National Guard troops to Chicago, but she didn’t immediately block the deployment.

Judge April Perry, in Chicago, set a midnight Wednesday deadline for the response from the federal government and scheduled a Thursday hearing in the lawsuit filed Monday.

The lawsuit alleges “these advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit says.

Trump has argued the troops are needed to help fight crime in Chicago and to ensure federal agents can enforce immigration laws in the city, which limits cooperation with federal immigration enforcement