The state of Illinois urged a judge Thursday to order the National Guard to stand down in the Chicago area, calling the deployment a constitutional crisis and suggesting the Trump administration gave no heed to the pending legal challenge when it sent troops overnight to an immigration enforcement building.

The government “plowed ahead anyway,” attorney Christopher Wells said. “Now, troops are here.”

Wells’ arguments opened an extraordinary hearing in federal court in Chicago. The city and the state, run by Democratic elected leaders, say President Donald Trump has exceeded his authority and ignored their pleas to keep the Guard off the streets.

Heavy public turnout at the downtown courthouse caused officials to open an overflow room with a video feed of the hearing.

Department of Justice lawyer Eric Hamilton said the Chicago area was rife with “tragic lawlessness.” He noted an incident last weekend in which a Border Patrol vehicle was boxed in and an agent shot a woman in response.

“Chicago is seeing a brazen new form of hostility from rioters targeting federal law enforcement,” Hamilton said. “They’re not protesters. There is enough that there is a danger of a rebellion here, which there is.”

Guard members from Texas and Illinois arrived this week at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago. All 500 are under the U.S. Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days.

Some Guard troops could be seen behind portable fences at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Broadview, outside Chicago. It has been the site of occasional clashes between protesters and federal agents, but the scene was peaceful, with few people present.

Police noticed troops apparently sleeping “undisturbed” in vans Wednesday night, Broadview said in a statement.

“We hope that they will extend the same courtesy in the coming days to Broadview residents who deserve a good night’s sleep, too,” the village said.

Chicago and Illinois filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the deployments, calling them unnecessary and illegal. Trump has portrayed Chicago as a lawless “hellhole” of crime, though statistics show a significant recent drop in crime.

In a court filing, the city and state say protests at the ICE building in Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement.”

“The President is using the Broadview protests as a pretext,” they wrote. “The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the President’s administration to target jurisdictions the President dislikes.”

The Republican president said Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker should be jailed for failing to protect federal agents during immigration enforcement crackdowns.

Also Thursday, a federal appeals court was scheduled to hear arguments over whether Trump had the authority to take control of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. The president had planned to deploy them in Portland, where there have been mostly small nightly protests outside an ICE building. Like in Illinois, state and city leaders insist troops are neither wanted nor needed there.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut on Sunday granted a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of Guard troops to Portland. Trump had mobilized California troops for Portland just hours after the judge first blocked him from using Oregon’s Guard.

Two dozen other states with a Democratic attorney general or governor signed an appeals court filing in support of the legal challenge by California and Oregon.

The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.

Trump previously sent troops to Los Angeles and Washington. In Memphis, Tennessee, Mayor Paul Young said Guard members would begin patrolling Friday. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee supports using the Guard.

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Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle, Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

CHICAGO — Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, a popular two-term Republican credited with guiding the state into a period of greater financial stability in the 1990s, died Sunday, according to his family. He was 79.

Edgar died from complications related to his treatment for pancreatic cancer, his family said in a statement. He publicly disclosed his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

“We are deeply grateful for the love, support and kindness so many have shown to Jim and our family over these last several months,” the statement said.

A former state legislator who was Illinois secretary of state for a decade, Edgar was elected governor in 1990. The moderate Republican easily won reelection, including winning heavily Democratic Cook County, where Chicago is located.

He remained a party statesman and adviser, and grew uneasy with the Republican Party’s shift to the right. Edgar was among high-profile Republicans who did not support Donald Trump’s presidency, joining a campaign to support Kamala Harris ′ bid for president last year called “Republicans for Harris.”

Born in small-town Oklahoma, Edgar was much more reserved than his flashy, charming predecessor, James R. Thompson, who was the longest-serving governor in state history. At the time Edgar took office, the state was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and paying its bills months late.

Amid a recession, Edgar pushed legislators to cut the state budget, making layoffs and cuts in popular programs. He also managed to fulfill his campaign promise of getting a temporary income tax surcharge made permanent, guaranteeing a stable source of money for public schools.

“It wasn’t always pretty how it was done, but we got a lot done,” Edgar told The Associated Press in 1998. “We went after some pretty tough issues. We didn’t get them all, but we got most of them.”

He surprised many political observers when he announced in 1997 that he would not seek a third term, considering his popularity. Republicans tried to draft him to run for office again, including bids for the U.S. Senate and again for Illinois governor. But he did not accept.

Edgar went on to teach and served as president emeritus of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, among other things.

“By any standard, he was a Republican whose integrity guided his time in office and who managed one of the most successful periods in Illinois state government,” Bob Kustra, who served as Edgar’s lieutenant governor, said in a statement.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Sunday that flags in the state would fly at half-staff in Edgar’s honor.

“Now more than ever, we should channel that spirit and resolve to live as Governor Edgar did: with honesty integrity, and an enduring respect for all,” Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a statement. “He will live on in the incalculable number of lives he touched and in the stronger institutions he helped build.”

Edgar is survived by his wife and two children.

His relatives said details on funeral plans would follow in the coming days.