Trump administration plans to deploy federal agents to Chicago, hints Milwaukee could be next

MADISON - More than 100 federal agents could be heading to Chicago and a top White House official hinted that Milwaukee may also see an intervention as part of the Trump administration's plan to show force in large cities run by Democrats. 

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in an interview over the weekend said the Trump administration would be rolling out a plan this week to address crime in cities, and suggested intervention could be coming to Chicago and Milwaukee.

"You’ll see something rolled out this week as we start to go in and make sure that the communities, whether it’s Chicago or Portland or Milwaukee or some place across the heartland of the country, we need to make sure their communities are safe,” Meadows said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures."

On Monday, the Chicago Tribune reported the Trump administration is crafting plans to send 150 federal agents to the Midwest's largest city. 

But it was not clear whether Milwaukee would receive a deployment similar to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, where agents detained protesters last week. 

The presence of federal agents in unmarked cars wearing uniforms that identified them only as "police" has drawn criticism from officials in Oregon, including the state's attorney general who filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of unlawfully detaining people protesting police brutality.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett hasn't received any communication regarding a potential federal intervention.

"With few exceptions, protests in Milwaukee have been peaceful," Barrett said in a statement. "It is preposterous to suggest Milwaukee needs federal agents to quell unrest or manage peaceful protests. Their presence at this time could be counterproductive."

Aides to Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who leads the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said Johnson has not heard anything about an intervention in Milwaukee. 

Milwaukee Common Council President Cavalier Johnson said if the Trump administration is considering sending federal law enforcement to Milwaukee, "I ask that they consult with local elected officials and community leaders who know what is needed in their own communities."

"I fully oppose the idea of federal law enforcement intervening in Milwaukee and believe doing so would only cause a deeper divide and heightened conflict," he said.

Milwaukee is hosting a scaled back Democratic National Convention in four weeks.

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is from Milwaukee, said Meadows was seeking to boost the president's struggling position in recent polls. 

"There is no point to this. It’s about poll numbers," Barnes wrote on Twitter. "It’s Trump virtue signaling, potentially with force, to his base who already has opinions about Milwaukee because he’s down by so many points in the state. It’s an election strategy to drive an even deeper divide in Wisconsin."

Trump has been polling behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Wisconsin. In a Marquette University Law School poll last month, Biden led Trump 49% to 41% among registered voters in Wisconsin.

Meadows made his comment after being asked if an executive order from the president was coming for "returning law and order to this country."

He said some of the unrest in the last month as well as in the previous week in Portland was not acceptable "when you look at communities not being safe and not upholding the rule of law.”

Meadows said Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf are looking into the issue.

The Homeland Security Investigations agents "are set to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts," the Tribune reported Monday, "though a specific plan on what the agents will be doing had not been made public."

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Chicago said the HSI agents, who are part of ICE, would not be involved in immigration or deportation efforts, according to the Tribune.