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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Protesters filled the streets of downtown Chicago for blocks last night, marching to oppose President Trump's repeated threats to send the National Guard and immigration officers into the city. On Saturday, several hours before the protest, Trump posted on social media about his plan, saying that the city is, quote, "about to find out why it's called the Department of War," referring to his executive order Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf is in Chicago and joins us now. Welcome.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
RASCOE: So, Kat, you were at the protest. What did you hear from people there?
LONSDORF: Yeah. Tensions are certainly mounting here, and people at the protest were genuinely concerned that troops would soon be sent into the city. You know, Trump says the National Guard would be deployed to fight crime here. He called it a hellhole, even though police data shows that violent crime is down here in recent years.
I talked to 33-year-old Kevin Ryan at the protest. He's a Chicago native and a Marine. And he was carrying a sign that said, veterans demand no troops on our streets. He says the National Guard is not law enforcement.
KEVIN RYAN: The military is not trained to police. It's a violation of federal law, and it's unconstitutional. And it's dangerous.
LONSDORF: Other people there told me that they showed up because they were worried about American democracy, especially after they've seen that these threats from Trump are real. Trump has deployed National Guard troops in both LA and D.C. in recent months. In D.C., they've been there for about a month now, and people are protesting almost daily. Yesterday, there was one that drew very large crowds and marched toward the White House. And to clarify, there are no troops in Chicago yet, but Trump has made it clear it is something he's set on doing. He just isn't saying when.
RASCOE: Trump isn't just threatening to send in the National Guard. He's also threatening increased deportation by ICE. What have you been hearing from people about that?
LONSDORF: Yeah. I went to a neighborhood called Pilsen yesterday. It's a very traditionally Mexican neighborhood on the west side. They were having their annual Mexican Independence Day parade. Other neighborhoods in Chicago had postponed similar events in the past week. But in Pilsen, organizers decided to go ahead with it. The turnout was certainly lower than past years, but people I talked to told me that they felt it was important to come out on behalf of others who are scared to leave their homes right now. Here's Liliana Scales. She lives in the neighborhood.
LILIANA SCALES: We're here. We're not going away. No matter what generation, no matter what threat, no matter what president is in office, we're not going away.
LONSDORF: There hasn't been an apparent surge here in immigration arrests this weekend, but the fear that people are feeling is very real. Twenty-seven-year-old Andrea Soria talked to me at the parade. She teared up a bit telling me about several undocumented members of her family who haven't left the house this week.
ANDREA SORIA: And for them to not be able to go out - and all this week, they've been relying on my stuff, you know, to go get groceries, go check on this.
LONSDORF: She said it's been really stressful.
RASCOE: We mentioned Trump's post on social media yesterday. How have local officials been responding?
LONSDORF: Yeah, both Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker are strongly against Trump's plan. In response to Trump's post yesterday, Johnson posted that Trump wants to, quote, "occupy our city and break our Constitution" and urged Chicago residents to protect each other. Pritzker also took to social media. He wrote, quote, "the president of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal."
RASCOE: That's in NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Chicago. Thank you so much, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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