Former military leaders decry National Guard deployment in Illinois
[October 17, 2025]
By Andrew Adams and Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — A group of retired military leaders — including the former
head of the state’s National Guard, several generals and an admiral —
met with Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday and publicly criticized President
Donald Trump’s attempted use of National Guard troops in Chicago.
The deployment is on pause following a federal judge’s order but has
attracted criticism from other former military officials as well as
civic groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Our founders understood that freedom cannot thrive under the shadow of
military control,” retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner said. “Civilian police
accountable to local leaders and bound by civil law are the right tools
for maintaining order, not troops and tanks.”
During a Thursday news conference, several speakers pointed to troop
deployments in Memphis, Los Angeles and other cities.
“Today we have to draw a line in the sand, respectfully, firmly and
without equivocation,” Janessa Goldbeck, a retired Marine and head of
the Vet Voice Foundation, said. “This is not normal, this is not
American, and this is not what the military is for.”
Meanwhile, retired Maj. Gen. William Enyart, the former adjutant general
of the Illinois National Guard and one-term Democratic U.S.
representative, said he was offended by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents “cosplaying” as soldiers.
“These ICE agents are not trained soldiers. They’re not trained
soldiers,” Enyart said. “They don’t show the discipline that soldiers
do. They don’t obey the same rules of engagement that soldiers do.”

Other military opposition
The group convened by Pritzker is not the first group of military
officials to oppose Trump’s proposed National Guard deployment.
A group of nine former service secretaries and four-star admirals and
generals filed a brief in an ongoing lawsuit over the deployment. They
include former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, an appointee of
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of the Navy Sean
O’Keefe, an appointee of both George H.W. and George W. Bush. The group
also includes admirals and generals from the Navy, Coast Guard, Army and
Air Force.
A domestic troop deployment for law enforcement purposes “inevitably
erodes public trust, hurts recruitment, and undermines troop morale,”
the group wrote in their brief.
“Peaceful protests of government actions are constitutionally protected
political speech deserving of the highest protection, not intimidation
by the military,” they said.
A temporary restraining order issued as part of that suit is currently
blocking the federal government from deploying troops. That order
expires next week but could be extended.
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Retired Maj. Gen. William Enyart, former adjutant general of the
Illinois National Guard and one-term Democratic U.S. Representative,
speaks at a news conference on Oct. 16. (Capitol News Illinois photo
by Andrew Adams)

Appeals court stands firm
Over the weekend, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District
Court Judge April Perry’s decision to issue that restraining order
blocking deployment of National Guard troops but reversed her ruling
that Trump didn’t have the authority to federalize guardsmen.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel from the appeals court published its
full opinion backing up its initial ruling, writing that “the facts do
not justify the President’s actions in Illinois.”
“Political opposition is not rebellion,” the judges ruled.
The ruling briefly alluded to arrested protesters who happened to be
carrying firearms with the proper licensing. The judges wrote that just
because some protesters “exercise their Second Amendment right” does not
mean a protest is a rebellion — or when demonstrators are organized,
engage in civil disobedience or “call for significant changes to the
structure of the U.S. government.”
“Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and
isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by
rogue participants in the protest,” the judges wrote.
Free speech lawsuit continues
A judge on Thursday took a harsh stance against the recent actions by
ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection, the two federal agencies
responsible for the recent crackdown on illegal immigration in Chicago.
After barring federal agents from using chemical irritants like tear gas
and other similar measures last week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis
admonished federal agents for using tear gas in a residential
neighborhood earlier this week.

Citing “serious concerns” that her orders were being ignored, Ellis told
Russell Hott, the head of ICE’s Chicago field office, to come into her
courtroom for questioning on Monday, according to reporting from the
Chicago Sun-Times.
Ellis also ordered agents to begin using body-worn cameras.
Pritzker, who said federal agents have been “lying all along,” applauded
the judge’s move, saying it was the “right thing.”
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