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South Dakota's governor, who serves as Donald Trump's homeland security secretary, labeled Chicago as "a combat zone" on Sunday. This occurred following government officers shot a woman, and the governor of Illinois claimed the federal government of fueling the situation rather than fixing it.

Noem's Comments on Television

During an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, Noem criticized the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson. The mayor has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration operations and sending of the state troops in Illinois, an action he called "irrational and harmful".

"It’s wrong, there should be consequences for that and for leaders that speak out and knowingly lie about the actual conditions," remarked. "Chicago is a war zone and he’s lying so that lawbreakers can enter and harm residents."

Government Deployment and Trump's Order

Noem’s remarks followed the president's order to deploy hundreds of personnel of the state guard to Chicago, with orders to protect federal officers and property. This action occurred just weeks after military personnel were dispatched to Washington, where the president federalized the city’s police force in what he described as a "crackdown" on crime, a pattern now extending to multiple other US cities. "We’re going to be doing Chicago likely soon," Trump had said at the time.

The Secretary's Justification of Government Measures

Noem defended the government's strategy, stating on television that locals backed the federal involvement. "Residents know that in areas we've entered we have made it much more free," she remarked. "Safety has improved, we have got a thousand criminals that are off the streets of Chicago, simply because our presence is established."

State Leader JB Pritzker Responds

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, the Democratic Illinois governor, Governor Pritzker, accused the administration of escalating the problem instead of solving it. "They are the ones who are making it a war zone," he said.

"They need to get out of Chicago. Unless they concentrate on the worst of the worst, as the president said they intend to do, they should depart immediately."

Federal Agents Shooting Information

Border patrol agents on Saturday shot and injured a woman while firing at an individual who tried to run them over. The woman who was shot was a US citizen and was armed with a firearm, a government spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin stated, noting that the woman was alleged in a federal agency alert last week of revealing agents' private information.

Pritzker's Condemnation on Online Platform

The governor also denounced the deployment in a message on a social media site on Saturday, writing: "The federal Department of War gave me an ultimatum: mobilize your forces, or we shall." He labeled the decision "completely unacceptable and against American values," and noted that it had been made "against our will".