CHICAGO, IL — On September 4, Alders Rossana Rodríguez Sanchez of the 33rd ward and Ray Lopez of the 15th ward as well as Professor of Law Harold Krent sat down with WTTW's Chicago Tonight to discuss Trump's continued threats to send the National Guard into Chicago.

Alders Lopez and Rodríguez landed on different sides of the issue. While Alder Lopez felt that the National Guard might protect areas like the Magnificent Mile allow local enforcement to respond to crime in outlying neighborhoods, Alder Rodríguez pointed out that this kind of intervention creates intimidation in our city and that her push for investment in violence prevention programs has already been extremely effective, much more quickly than anticipated. As pointed out by WBEZ, Chicago has seen "its fewest summer murders since 1965".

Professor Krent pointed out that from a legal standpoint, it is unconstitutional to send the National Guard, or any federal forces, to do work that is not part of a federal mission or emergency. They are not allowed to come in and do local law enforcement work, and if deployed, they certainly would not be taking orders from Springfield or Chicago. Professor Krent also suggested that going into the midterm year, this kind of intervention, if normalized, might be used to intimidate voters in key polling areas.

Alder Rodríguez closed out the segment saying, "I believe that we know exactly what works, we need to continue to fund the initiatives that work. With those $134 million dollars we could fund so many services for the community — violence interuption, expansion of mental healthcare — and those are the things we need to be looking into."

As of this publishing, the threatened National Guard has failed to materialize. Block Club Chicago pointed out, "President Donald Trump appears to be backing off his plan to send National Guard troops to Chicago after weeks of threatening to do so over the objections of local leaders." While we should celebrate this, we should remain vigilant as there are still increased numbers of Federal Agents in Chicago.

Rossana has also published an article in Jacobin Magazine titled Trump's Military Occupation of Chicago Won't Bring Safety.

Take Action

1) Help support the fight for Rossana's Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program!

This is a non-police emergency response unit that has contributed to the drop in crime, in addition to other violence prevention programs. As quoted from The Sun-Times, "CARE teams include mental health professionals, peer support workers and first responders. They bring compassion, not cuffs. They offer support, not punishment."

Click this link to call and/or email your alder to support CARE.

2) 33rd Ward Working Families is back on the doors for our endorsed candidates Delia Ramirez, Graciela Guzmán, and Jessica Vásquez. While we collect signatures to get them on the ballot we will also be sharing "know your rights" information, and acting as "block patrols" in case of Federal checkpoints. You can sign up for our next canvass on September 13 here, or else check out our calendar for other canvasses and events!

3) Support Rossana's leadership by joining us at our Sixth Annual Bike With Rossana! We will walk/bike across the ward and end at our office for a barbecue!

Save the date for Sunday, September 28, 11:30am, launching from our office at 3248 W Montrose.

Get your tickets on/before 9/12 to receive one of our new t-shirts!

Tickets: https://build.rossanafor33.org/bike_with_rossana_2025