WASHINGTON

The US state of Illinois and its most populous city sued the federal government Monday in a bid to block US President Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard to Chicago.

"Defendants’ deployment of federalized troops to Illinois is patently unlawful. Plaintiffs ask this court to halt the illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional federalization of members of the National Guard of the United States, including both the Illinois and Texas National Guard," says the suit filed by state Attorney General Kwame Raoul in the Northern District of Illinois.

"The Trump administration’s illegal actions have already subjected and are subjecting Illinois to serious and irreparable harm. The deployment of federalized National Guard, including from another state, infringes on Illinois’s sovereignty and right to self-governance. It will cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police," it adds.

Mary Richardson-Lowry, the corporation counsel for the city of Chicago, joined the suit.

The White House pushed back on the filing, saying that Trump "has exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets" amid what it alleged are "violent riots and lawlessness."

“President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Anadolu.

The Trump administration has been accused of exaggerating crime and disorder in the US cities it wants to send National Guard troops to – largely cities led by Black democrats – and of ignoring statistics of falling crime. The administration has called the statistics fake.

The filing is just the latest effort by Democratic-led states and cities to fight Trump's deployment of National Guardsmen to the streets of major American cities.

Trump previously sent the National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and is in the process of doing so in Memphis, Tennessee. He also deployed the Marines to Los Angeles to quell unrest caused by his immigration crackdown in June.

Trump is now seeking to deploy nearly 300 California National Guard troops to Oregon and an additional 400 Texas National Guard members to Illinois, Oregon, and other states.