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Illinois sending 500 National Guard members to Washington, amid domestic-terror threat

Guard
National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. this week.
Getty Images

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — ​Gov. JB Pritzker has activated about 500 members of the Illinois National Guard to go to Washington, at the request of the Department of Defense.

This activation follows a federal Homeland Security warning about "ideologically motivated violent extremists."


Pritzker's office on Thursday said the 500 Illinois soldiers are expected to stay in Washington until the middle of March.

Guard members deployed for President Biden's Jan. 6 inauguration have come back home, but the governor's office says about 50 have volunteered to go back to the nation's capital.

Pritzker said the deployment there won't affect the Guard's mission to help vaccinate people in Illinois.

On that topic, Pritzker announced at a vaccination site in Cicero that he has gotten good news from FEMA.

"The state of Illinois will be receiving $43 million additional to help us with vaccination," he said.

Pritzker also said Illinois has been promised a 16% increase in the number of vaccine doses.

The Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 4,191 new cases of coronavirus and 103 additional deaths from COVID-19.