Gov. Greg Abbott denies allegation that Trump is deploying Texas National Guard to Illinois

After Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday said he had reason to believe Texas National Guard troops were preparing to deploy to Illinois under President Donald Trump’s orders, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has refuted the claim.

A spokesman for Abbott told. the Austin-American Statesman that, as of Tuesday afternoon, the governor wasn’t preparing to deploy troops to Illinois.

Pritzker made the assertion after President Donald Trump said during an Oval Office press conference that he would dispatch Guard troops to Chicago — a claim the president already appears to have walked back.

“We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois,” Pritzker said in a live update posted by ABC News.

Pritzker added that Chicago was about to get the same treatment Los Angeles and, more recently, Washington D.C. received as Trump sent Guard personnel to patrol their streets as part of a crime crackdown.  

“First, Donald Trump is positioning armed federal agents and staging military vehicles on federal property, such as the Great Lakes Naval base,” the governor said. “It is likely those agents will be with ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security and other similarly situated federal agencies. Many of these individuals are being relocated from Los Angeles for deployment in Chicago.”

Pritzker further predicted the troops would “raid Latino communities and say they’re targeting violent criminals.” He added that Trump “will be looking for any excuse to put active duty military on our streets, supposedly to protect ICE.”

When pressed by reporters on how he knew the administration had begun staging the Texas National Guard, Pritzker declined to offer more information.

“Let’s be clear: I’m not going to reveal the sources,” the governor said. “These are people who are patriotic Americans who either work in the administration or work in the various branches of the military who’ve been willing to share what they know with us.”

Whether Trump actually plans to send troops to Chicago now appears to be up in the air after the president told reporters Wednesday that he’s now considering deploying the Guard to New Orleans because Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, is receptive to the idea. 

“You have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in two weeks, easier than D.C.,” Trump said, according to Politico.

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This article appears in Sep 3-17, 2025.