500 US troops deployed in Chicago ahead of court hearing

CHICAGO: Five hundred US troops deployed in the Chicago area on Thursday as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown, despite strenuous objections of local leaders seeking a judge’s order to block the mobilisation.

District Judge April Perry was set to hold a hearing on the issue, a day after Trump called for jailing the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago for resisting his military-backed mass deportation and anti-crime campaign. The government argues the troops are needed to protect federal agents during immigration raids in the Democratic stronghold, the third-largest city in the United States, which the Trump administration depicts in exaggerated and lurid terms as “a war zone”.