Illinois' senior U.S. Senator says court rulings preventing the Trump Administration from deploying federal troops into Chicago are a sign that the White House is acting outside the law.
Retiring Senator Dick Durbin is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and has been a key part of federal judge confirmation hearings for years.
During an appearance Friday morning with advocates for immigrant communities on Chicago's Northwest side, Durbin said he's encouraged that numerous federal district and appeals court judges have -- for now -- kept National Guard and active-duty military troops out of Chicago.
"Courts have consistently found that the Trump Administration has consistently overstepped the law and the Constitution," said Durbin. "That is a consistent ruling ... the same thing happened in the state of Oregon ... and it tells us very clearly that this Administration is breaking the law."
But Durbin says he's concerned that the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court will defer to the President's interpretation of the law when the justices get the issue.
"The court has made some rulings in recent times that I disagree with strongly," said Durbin. "I'm not going to assume that's going to happen again, but we have to follow this very carefully."
And Durbin points to what he describes as hundreds of judges saying that the Administration has, in his words, "gone too far."