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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced new “ICE-free zone” policies and used fiery language saying the right wing “wants a rematch of the Civil War,” warning that his city may be “pushed—if not forced—to take even more dramatic action” if federal immigration operations continue. His remarks were framed as a defense of immigrant communities, but they read to many Americans like a license for lawlessness and confrontational resistance to federal law enforcement.
That rhetoric comes amid a real law-and-order clash on the ground: federal ICE operations in the region have resulted in numerous detentions while the Biden-era and Trump-era policies collide in court and on the streets, and the federal government has moved to shore up ICE operations and protect agents. The escalation has even included the deployment of National Guard personnel to the Chicagoland area, a sign this is no longer a symbolic spat but a breakdown in coordination that threatens public safety.
Conservative citizens should be blunt: a mayor invoking the Civil War and promising to “build greater resistance” crosses a red line between protest and provocation. Johnson’s language — urging people to “rise up” and reject federal action while declaring city protections against ICE — is dangerously close to encouraging direct confrontation with agents enforcing federal law, and that kind of rhetoric has predictable, violent consequences.
We’ve already seen the fallout: both federal officials and conservative commentators warn that hostile words and apps used to track ICE operations have coincided with a spike in assaults and ambushes of immigration officers. When elected leaders signal that federal lawmen are not welcome and that resistance is honored, they are signaling that violence against those officers will be tolerated rather than condemned. That is reckless and inconsistent with protecting ordinary Chicagoans who simply want safe streets.
Meanwhile, Democratic state and city officials have traded barbs with the federal government instead of focusing on practical solutions that protect residents and enforce the rule of law. Illinois’ leaders have publicly refused to cooperate with certain federal deployments even as governors from other states have authorized National Guard support to protect federal personnel — a political stunt that is now spiraling into real public disorder. The voters seeing this chaos will not forget who chose theatrics over safety.
Patriotic Americans don’t want a spectacle or a standoff; we want lawful, sensible enforcement and municipal leaders who will work with federal partners to keep citizens safe. That means condemning violence, protecting officers who are carrying out court-authorized missions, and rejecting incendiary rhetoric that treats our institutions as enemies. The mayor’s job is to calm and protect, not to inflame and divide.
If city halls become safe harbors for defiance of federal law and daily governance is sacrificed to political theater, the consequences will fall hardest on the working families who already suffer from crime and instability. Conservatives will continue to stand with law enforcement and call for accountability at the ballot box for any leader who elevates partisan posturing over public safety.
