When Gonzo Gonzalez enlisted in the Navy in 2016, he believed in the promise of service, of protecting a country that valued the diversity he found among his fellow sailors.
Now a senior film and television major at Columbia, Gonzalez said that sense of purpose feels harder to reconcile. After the Trump administration sent members of the Texas National Guard to Chicago this past week, Gonzalez and other Latinos who have served or are still serving in the military are now questioning what it means to serve.
“I have a problem when the National Guard, Border Patrol, ICE shows up, and they’re telling you that you’re the problem,” Gonzalez said, “when, honestly, these are people that are not within our community and don’t know what the problem is. They just hear something, and stick to a narrative that is not true.”
For many students, the use of the National Guard to enforce immigration policy immigration has blurred what it means to “protect and serve.”
“At the end of the day, it’s like they’re using their own forces to go against their own people,” said Cindy Zeas, a sophomore interior architecture major from Chicago who is an Army reservist. “It should always be them against the enemy, and the enemy is not the people that live here. There are a lot of people getting arrested that are simply just living their lives, and they’re being threatened.”
The National Guard primarily operates under the command of a governor and is used to assist with national disasters or civil disturbances. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker last activated the National Guard in August 2024 to assist the Chicago Police Department with the Democratic National Convention. They were also activated for protests around the murder of George Floyd and to assist with COVID-19 testing during the pandemic.
The president also can federalize the National Guard — which a federal appellate court confirmed last week — and put them under the command of active-duty military, typically for overseas deployments, combat missions and national security.
Trump has sent National Guard troops to mostly Democratic cities this year to help protect federal buildings and federal agents carrying out his immigration policies. He has also cited crime and lawlessness. In September, he called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world” without evidence and sent the guard to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C,. Portland and Chicago over objections of state and local leaders. The deployments have coincided with sweeping immigration raids.
Victor LaGroon, former senior advisor and chief diversity officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the way in which the administration wants the National Guard to operate in Chicago is “a sharp contrast to what we teach our current service members,” referring to action beyond their designated role to protect federal property.
“The function of the military is not to police Americans, it’s not to police American streets, it’s not to ensure that people have access to enforce ICE activity,” he told the Chronicle. “The National Guard is there to serve its local state. So, to see the current administration use the National Guard in this way, I think, is a heartbreak for many veterans.”
The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago filed a lawsuit in October 2025 to stop the administration from deploying the National Guard in Chicago. A federal judge issued a temporary injunction last week that blocks the federalization of National Guard troops in Illinois for 14 days. On Saturday, Oct. 11, an appeals court ruled that the National Guard cannot be deployed. The administration is appealing.
Two years into her six-year contract, Zeas said she worries about the impact on recruitment. She attended Rickover Naval Academy in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago for high school, which inspired her to enlist after graduation. Some of her peers may be turned off from following a similar path, she said.
“I do believe a lot of them are having second thoughts, which can be really scary because a lot of them don’t want to go to school, they want to join the military,” Zeas said. “That’s their passion, and I know that would be a change for them.”
That’s something that also concerned LaGroon.
“We have told and recruited members from Latino and Hispanic, West Indian, African, Haitian communities that if you serve, it is a path to citizenship, only for us to not keep our word to that opportunity for citizenship for those members,” he said. “To see people sacrifice and risk it all, and ultimately, some have paid the ultimate sacrifice, but be denied on the back end their opportunity to become full American citizens, I think is a travesty, I think it is a crime.”
Miguel Guerrero, a senior photography major, served in the Marines from 2012 to 2021, occupying various roles, such as radio operator, operations watch chief and Marine security guard. He pointed out that every branch of law enforcement takes an oath to the U.S. Constitution and sees recent operations creating a “domestic enemy,” which contradicts the oath.
Some troops may be conflicted because they also pledge to follow presidential orders, Guerrero said.
“These people think that they’re protected with the ‘oh, I was just following orders,’” he said. “That’s incorrect, because they are held under their own actions as human beings, because we are supposed to be knowing the ethical rights and wrongs.”
Victor Enríquez, a junior fine arts major, served in the Marine infantry from 2008 to 2012. Thirteen years later, he is alarmed by what he’s seeing in Chicago.
“It goes against my personal beliefs and everything that I, in my bones, know to be a good, decent human being,” he said.
In spite of a recent court ruling forbidding the federal agents from targeting people without a warrant, ICE has continued to detain landscapers, day laborers at Home Depot, ride-share drivers at the airport and parents of school-age children, pulling people from their vehicles and snatching them off the streets in Chicago and the suburbs. Although the administration initially said they were only going after violent criminals, even U.S. citizens have been caught up in the raids, and protesters and journalists have been targeted.
“I didn’t sign up to protect a country, just to be on the other side of that now; just to be profiled by the way I look,” Gonzalez said.
Guerrero said the government shouldn’t be blanketly targeting the Latino community.
“Everybody came to America to put a helping hand and put a nail into its foundation,” Guerrero said. “But the fact that now that it’s built and we’re getting targeted; why are we going steps back instead of steps forward?”
Enríquez has seen tensions rise, creating an “undercurrent of anxiety” throughout his community and immediate family.
“There’s just too much good that immigrants bring to the table,” he said.
LaGroon also is concerned about the erosion of trust between the military and civilians.
“I think the real damage is that we want Americans to always trust that our military will remain apolitical,” LaGroon said. “And today, we see that they no longer have that ability to remain unbiased. It’s immoral to see this type of action taken against normal citizens, whether they have legal or illegal status.”
Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco
