A Chicago alderman on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to send the National Guard to the city and said roughly half of his fellow city officials privately support the move but are reluctant to speak out.
Alderman Raymond Lopez, who represents the 15th Ward on the South Side, told the New York Post that Chicago should accept federal help to address what he described as a surge in violent crime and other criminal activity. He said local officials should not "play politics with people's lives."
Lopez said he has witnessed robberies, shootings and human trafficking in his ward and described incidents he said included a Venezuelan migrant involved in a fatal shooting and the sale of women on social media platforms. He said the Chicago Police Department is understaffed and that federal forces could provide needed support.
The White House has suggested a deployment similar to an operation in Washington, D.C., in August that it said coincided with a sharp decline in some crime metrics. The administration has repeatedly said federal assistance could help reduce violence in Chicago but has insisted local officials must request it. President Trump has said he is prepared to send federal forces but has called on Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to make the formal request; neither has done so.
Lopez said many of his colleagues on City Council privately favor a request for federal assistance but are afraid of political repercussions. "I'd say probably half the city council is in favor of it," he said, adding that council members are "overwhelmingly Democratic from various ethnic backgrounds." He suggested some officials fear retaliation from wealthy political backers if they break with the party leadership.
Few other elected Democrats in the city have publicly endorsed the idea. One exception cited by Lopez is Robert Milan, a former first assistant state's attorney for Cook County, who said previous joint operations with federal authorities produced significant short-term reductions in crime. Milan said experiments in the early 2000s and a 2016 operation produced large declines in reported offenses, and he argued the current debate should focus on public safety rather than partisan conflict.
Milan told the New York Post that earlier efforts had yielded "massive successes," saying one weekend test in 2016 coincided with a 41% drop in reported crime citywide. Those figures were described by Milan in the interview; city and independent data reviews would be required to confirm the precise effects of past operations.
City and state officials have not publicly requested a Guard deployment, and neither Pritzker's office nor Mayor Johnson's office provided statements advocating for such a request in reporting on the exchange. Officials have previously raised concerns about the legal authority, scope and potential civil rights implications of a federal law enforcement presence in local communities.
Lopez, who has served about a decade in the 15th Ward, said residents he hears from "overwhelmingly" support a federal response. He described the situation in his ward as an everyday reality of parents and children adjusting their routines because of fear of violence.
Local law enforcement leaders have acknowledged staffing and resource challenges in parts of the city, particularly on the South and West sides, where homicide and shooting rates have remained elevated compared with many other large American cities. Police officials and community leaders have advocated a range of responses, including increased staffing, targeted enforcement, social services and violence-interruption programs.
The debate over a federal deployment in Chicago comes amid a broader national discussion about the use of the National Guard and other federal assets to assist cities grappling with crime. The White House and presidential campaign officials have framed such assistance as a necessary step to protect public safety, while critics and some local leaders have warned about the risks of federalizing responses to locally driven public-safety challenges.
As of the latest reporting, no formal request for National Guard or federal troop assistance had been received from Illinois or Chicago authorities, and the possibility of a deployment remained a subject of public dispute among elected officials and law enforcement observers.
