Photo courtesy of The New York Times.
By: John T. Breakey, Buzz Staff Writer
“It’s time to stop this madness,” said President Donald Trump. “The people of our country need to insist on protection, safety, law, and order.”
The president posted this statement on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter on September 9th, 2025, addressing crime rates in Democrat-run cities.
One city that has been a major target and many St. Ambrose students call home is Chicago, Illinois, and its surrounding suburbs known as “Chicagoland.” The metro area is home to nearly two-thirds of Illinois’ population.
Around 300 members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been sent into the city of Chicago itself and have been conducting migrant crackdowns. Protesters also have railed against an ICE facility in the west Chicago suburb of Broadview where tear gas and pepper balls have been deployed, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
U.S. Border Patrol agents also have been patrolling in downtown Chicago with members of their Special Operations Group, their primer tactical force. During their patrol, The Sun Times reported that many were arrested on the basis of “how they look.”
In recent months, Trump has said he would commit federal law enforcement and members of the National Guard to fight crime in Chicago. Though, no members of the National Guard have been deployed to the city, many Chicago SAU students on campus say they are on edge about the matter since the start of this conflict.
“Honestly, I want to support it, but I just know it’s going to go bad for the city,” said freshman psychology major Andrew Brooks, who resides on the West Side of Chicago. “I feel like he only cares about what supports him and gets back to him. I don’t think he cares much about the community.”
SAU junior Joey Scott, a biology major, from the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines, IL, says the president is overstepping his boundaries. “The president should be focused on other things rather than what’s going on in one specific city in the whole country. …it should be up to the state or city to fight crime instead of going to the federal government.”
Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, and Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, have “denounced Trump’s abuse of power” in a joint statement from the governor’s office. On August 30, 2025, Mayor Johnson signed an executive order banning law enforcement officials from wearing masks and requiring them to carry official identification.
However, other SAU students say they support the deployment.
Junior accounting major and resident of the northwest side of Chicago, Joe Jummati, says he believes the city and state have failed to keep Chicago residents safe, “Living in the city has proved that [the state and city government] can’t do their jobs. I believe that the Trump Administration has every right to intervene and protect the nation’s citizens and make the streets of Chicago safer.”
During the Labor Day weekend, a total of eight people were killed and 48 others were injured by gunfire, according to FOX 32 Chicago, a local Chicago news station. This year alone, the Chicago Sun-Times reports there were 310 homicides as of September 30th, 2025, which is still climbing. This comes with a shortage of Chicago police officers and detectives.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2024 that Mayor Johnson had lost around 910 CPD officers since being sworn in. During his campaign and time in office, he promised that 200 more detectives would be trained and promoted. However, as of August 2025, according to the city’s Office of Inspector General, the current membership of the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Detectives and area detectives is 1,209, which is short of 1,298 when Johnson assumed office in May of 2023.
However, students from the city believe that additional resources for CPD from the federal government can be helpful.
“I think what [Trump] should do is to increase the funding for [the CPD],” said Joey Scott.
However, junior sports management major PJ Crater of the West Side of Chicago, says that military support could be helpful, “If you have the resources of a military, you really can do a lot. I don’t think it should be that aggressive, and more surveillance and being able to stop stuff before it happens.”
The nearly 300 members of the ICE arrived at the Naval Station Great Lakes in the northern suburbs of North Chicago. PBS reported that the surge of ICE agents has led to over 400 arrests as of September 19th, 2025, under what they have codenamed “Operation Midway Blitz.”
In addition, ABC7 Chicago reports ICE has detained protestors at their Broadview facility and Border Patrol detained multiple people in downtown Chicago. This comes after a shooting involving an ICE agent that killed a 38-year-old Mexican national, Silverio Villegas González on September 12th, 2025, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Although no National Guardsmen have been mobilized to the City of Big Shoulders, many other cities have been threatened. NPR reports that members of the National Guard and federal law enforcement are being sent to Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon.
In addition, the City of Portland and State of Oregon have filed a lawsuit against the administration. This also comes Governor Pritzker reported to WBEZ Chicago that the Illinois National Guard got a memo from the Department of Homeland Security requesting support for 100 Guardsmen “for the protection of ICE personnel and facilities.”
The possibility of federal law enforcement and National Guard members being sent to an American city for high crime is far from over.
“Sending the National Guard would calm [Chicago] down,” says Brooks, “but I don’t know if it would work in the long run.”
