ELWOOD, Ill. (AP) — National Guard troops are positioned outside Chicago and they could be in Memphis by Friday as the Trump administration pushes ahead with an aggressive policy toward big-city crime whether local leaders support it or not.

National Guard members from Texas had settled in at an Army Reserve center in Illinois by early Wednesday, despite a lawsuit and vigorous opposition from Democratic elected leaders. Their exact mission was not clear, though the Trump administration has an aggressive immigration enforcement operation in the nation’s third-largest city, and protesters have frequently rallied at an immigration building outside Chicago in Broadview.

The president has called Chicago a “hell hole” of