Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a sweeping but largely symbolic executive order Saturday afternoon to protect residents’ rights in preparation for federal agents possibly arriving in Chicago for a major immigration enforcement effort. The order also seeks to bar any federal agents working in Chicago from wearing masks, and to require them to wear badges and other identifying information.

The Democratic mayor’s signing of the “Protecting Chicago Initiative” comes amid growing concerns of a military deployment to America’s third-largest city as soon as Friday. The order seeks to ensure that residents know their rights, and every part of the city government is directed to protect residents from federal action, the mayor said at a news conference.

“This executive order makes it emphatically clear that this president is not going to come in and deputize our police department,” Johnson said. “We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. We don’t want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents. We don’t want to see Chicagoans arrested for sitting on their porch. That’s not who we are as a city, and that’s not who we are as a nation.    

The mayor’s order “demands” the Trump administration to “stand down from any attempts to deploy the U.S. Armed Forces—including the National Guard—in Chicago.”

“The City will pursue all available legal and legislative avenues to counter coordinated efforts from the federal government that violate the rights of the City and its residents, including the Constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest and the right to due process,” the order states. “Consistent with local, state, and federal law, all City departments are prohibited from participating in any enforcement actions aimed at violating Chicagoan’s rights to peacefully assemble and protest.”

It also prohibits Chicago police officers from wearing any “mask, covering or disguise while performing their official duties” except for medical masks, riot helmets, or respirators if needed for health or safety reasons.

“Officers may not use such equipment for the purpose of concealing identity,” the order states.

The mayor’s executive order also “urges” federal agents to comply with the policy prohibiting officers from wearing masks on duty, and requiring them to wear body cameras and activate them whenever they interact with the public. Under the order, police officers, federal agents, and members of the military also should clearly display identifying information displaying their agency, last name, and badge number or rank.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other federal agents have routinely worn masks and not clearly identified themselves as they have carried out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

It’s unclear what actions the city would take if federal agents or troops ignored any of the directives in the mayor’s executive order, although he suggested the city could file a lawsuit.

“We will use every single tool at our disposal, and that includes the courts,” he said.

CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller said Johnson can’t order ICE or the National Guard what to wear, just like the president can’t issue orders to Chicago police.

“I think it boils down to being a political request, not a legal request, and I think that’s how the ICE agents will take it,” Miller said.

Miller said, if the Trump administration simply sends in more ICE agents or other federal agents to step up federal law enforcement efforts in Chicago, there’s nothing the city could do to stop them, since federal law enforcement agencies already operate in the city, but if Trump does send in the National Guard, the mayor could try to go to court to stop them.

“If it’s the National Guard or it’s active duty troops, that’s when I think you are going to see the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago be running over to federal court to have a federal judge issue an order that that can’t happen,” Miller said.

In addition to the requirements for law enforcement, the mayor’s order directs the city’s departments to regularly submit Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain information on ICE and Customs and Border Protection activity in Chicago.

City departments and agencies are also instructed to provide easily accessible information regarding Chicago residents’ rights when encountering immigration enforcement activities near schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, places of worship, and other sensitive locations.

“Protecting Chicago will ensure that every Chicagoan knows their rights, that every single family is prepared, and every part of city government is directed to protect the people of Chicago from federal action,” Johnson said.

The first-term mayor said he’s received “highly credible reports” that federal agents would arrive in the city in a matter of days. However, he did not say exactly when agents will arrive or how that may look.

“Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time,” Johnson said. “We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some sort type of militarized activity by the federal government.”  

Aldermen who support the mayor’s order said it sends a clear message to the White House.

“It’s also a statement in history to let people know exactly who we are as a city, what’s important to us, and to call out an authoritarian in the White House looking to sow more disorder,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th). “We are Chicago and we don’t stand for it.”

Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd) said the mayor’s executive order will help reassure people in the city who fear what the Trump administration has planned in Chicago.

“Policy is sometimes unclear. This executive order brings more clarity. It brings more assurances to our residents that Chicago police will not be allowed to cooperate with federal authorities. That’s a big deal, said Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd).

In response to Johnson’s executive order, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer.”

“They should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser, who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington, D.C.,” Jackson said, in part.

Earlier this month, President Trump deployed members of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and ordered the federal government to take control of the D.C. police as part of a push to crack down on crime, despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years. He argued that the numbers are “phony.”

“We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” the president said at the time.

In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the possibility of sending federal agents to the city an “invasion,” arguing Mr. Trump has “other aims” aside from cracking down on crime.

In a Truth Social post Saturday evening, Mr. Trump called Pritzker a “weak and pathetic Governor” who “just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME. He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”    

There are also concerns from officials and Chicagoans that operations in the city could look similar to what occurred in Los Angeles during the spring, which included armored trucks and armed federal agents as they carried out immigration arrests.

It sparked days of protests and eventually the deployment of the National Guard by the federal government over the protests of state and local leaders in California. 

Johnson mentioned that he’s been in communication with the mayor in L.A. on the handling of federal agents.

“The time for action is now,” he said.