Duckworth says DHS 'fled the base’ during visit by Democrats
Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Homeland Security officials “locked the doors” of the Great Lakes Naval Base.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Sunday: “I take what the President of the United States says very seriously, because that is the respect you have to give to the office." | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said federal officials disappeared from a Navy base near Chicago on Friday after Democrats announced they would tour the facility ahead of the arrival of immigration officers.
In an interview with host Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Duckworth said when she joined fellow Illinois Democrats Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Brad Schneider for a tour of the Naval Station Great Lakes, Department of Homeland Security officials had given staff the day off, “locked the doors and left the base.”
“Basically, they fled the base,” Duckworth said. Naval Station Great Lakes, which opened in 1911, is the site for boot camp for Naval trainees.
Officials last week said that up to 300 ICE agents would be operating out of the Great Lakes Naval Base as President Donald Trump ramps up his efforts against Democratic-controlled sanctuary cities. Trump also said the administration will deploy the National Guard to the city, drawing outrage from Democrats including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Ahead of the lawmakers’ trip to the base, Duckworth said, she and her colleagues asked DHS if they could come tour the facility to have a “better understanding of what your operations are.”
DHS officials, she said, replied no.
“This is not the action of someone that’s doing something legal or that they’re- that they’re proud of,” said Duckworth.
“We certainly have sent the administration multiple inquiries about what they are planning on doing. Who are they bringing into Chicago? Are they planning to bring the National Guard in? They’ve none of that. They’ve not even reached out to local law enforcement to try to coordinate,” she added. “And we’ve not gotten any communications or feedback from the administration, whatsoever.”
Navy officials that were on the base during the Democrats’ tour told them that the assistance they’ve been requested to provide so far is only office space for ICE, Duckworth added.
While it is unclear when ICE officials or the National Guard will be sent to Chicago, Trump on Saturday said his administration will go to “WAR” with the city of Chicago.
“Chicago [is] about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, referring to the Department of Defense’s planned name change.
Illinois officials quickly responded to the post, calling the president a “tyrant” and a “declaration of war.”
“I take what the President of the United States says very seriously, because that is the respect you have to give to the office,” Duckworth said on Sunday. “And if that’s what he’s declaring, then let me make it clear, it would be an illegal order to declare war on a major city, any city within the United States, by the President of the United States.
