JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Hundreds of National Guard troops have arrived in Illinois. They include 200 members of the Texas National Guard, that was deployed after President Trump threatened for weeks to send in the Guard over the objections of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. And with loads of legal wrangling, it is still unclear when the troops will actually hit the streets of Chicago. Joining us now is Michael Puente of member station WBEZ. Hi there.
MICHAEL PUENTE, BYLINE: Hello there.
SUMMERS: So, Michael, for several weeks, there have been immigration agents traveling throughout Chicago and they've been making arrests. There have also been protesters in the streets who are opposed to their presence. Tell us, where are the National Guard troops now? And do you have a sense of how many there are?
PUENTE: Yes. There are about 500 troops in all - 200 from Texas, the rest are from Illinois. And because of the legal wrangling you were mentioning, it's still unclear when the troops would be in Chicago. They're at a U.S. Army Reserve center in Elwood, Illinois, about 50 miles outside of Chicago. They are being housed there because of - the governor says he hasn't received any communication from the Trump administration about the deployment, so he's not allowing them to use state facilities.
The Trump administration has said the troops are there to protect federal facilities and immigration officers, although there's been some vastly conflicting stories about what's been happening with arrests by ICE, often with agents jumping out of vans and detaining people without any warrants.
SUMMERS: Yesterday on the show, we spoke with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and he has called the deployment of troops to his state - to Chicago - an invasion. I know you've been out there talking to people in the area. What did you hear?
PUENTE: Well, in Chicago, for the most part, the troops are not welcome. Many say, while the city has a crime issue - not unlike many urban areas - it's been on the decline, and it's far from this war zone that they've been talking about. And in Elwood, there's a - there's strong objections to the troops, but others have some mixed feelings.
MIRANDA WELLS: I feel like the ICE agents have a job to do, but I know that our residents of Chicago and the citizens of our state also have a place to live right now, and I don't want that to change for anybody. I think that it's good they're getting more support and more protection from the National Guard and the Army and all that. I think that's good for them, but I don't really fully support ICE itself.
PUENTE: And that's from a young woman from Elwood named Miranda Wells (ph).
SUMMERS: Michael, are there specific areas of the city of Chicago where ICE has been conducting raids? And can you tell us anything about what it's been like for the people that live there?
PUENTE: Well, they started off downtown and they have made their way to areas South and Southwest Sides of the city, in predominantly Latino neighborhoods. And one of the most controversial raids occurred on the South Side of Chicago with an immigration raid of an entire apartment building in the middle of the night, going through every apartment, putting children in zip ties and causing quite a furore. The governor has called for an investigation into how the children were treated in that raid. So it's been really, really tough for the residents.
SUMMERS: And last thing, President Trump and the White House continue to argue that sending troops to cities like Chicago and others, that - they say that this is because of a need to fight crime.
PUENTE: Well, Chicago officials say, like many cities, violent crime in Chicago has been on the decline. They also say that if the concern was about tamping down crime, there are other areas in the country where the crime rate is actually higher.
SUMMERS: Michael Puente with member station WBEZ, thank you so much.
PUENTE: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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