Mayor Brandon Johnson signed a sweeping but largely symbolic executive order Saturday afternoon to protect residents’ rights in preparation for federal agents possibly arriving in Chicago. The order also seeks to bar any federal agents working in Chicago from wearing masks, and to require them to wear badges and other identifying information.

The Democratic mayor’s signing of the “Protecting Chicago Initiative” comes amid growing concerns of a military deployment to America’s third-largest city as soon as Friday. The order seeks to ensure that residents know their rights, and every part of the city government is directed to protect residents from federal action, the mayor said at a news conference.

“We have not called for this. Our people have not asked for this, but nevertheless, we find ourselves having to respond to this,” Johnson said.

The mayor’s order “demands” the Trump administration to “stand down from any attempts to deploy the U.S. Armed Forces—including the National Guard—in Chicago.”

“The City will pursue all available legal and legislative avenues to counter coordinated efforts from the federal government that violate the rights of the City and its residents, including the Constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest and the right to due process,” the order states. “Consistent with local, state, and federal law, all City departments are prohibited from participating in any enforcement actions aimed at violating Chicagoan’s rights to peacefully assemble and protest.”

It also prohibits Chicago police officers from wearing any “mask, covering or disguise while performing their official duties” except for medical masks, riot helmets, or respirators if needed for health or safety reasons.

“Officers may not use such equipment for the purpose of concealing identity,” the order states, adding that federal agents and any military troops in Chicago are “urged to adhere to these requirements to protect public safety and promote accountability.”

Police officers, federal agents, and members of the military also should clearly display identifying information displaying their agency, last name, and badge number or rank.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other federal agents have routinely worn masks and not clearly identified themselves as they have carried out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

In addition to the requirements for law enforcement, the mayor’s order directs the city’s departments to regularly submit Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to obtain information on ICE and Customs and Border Protection activity in Chicago.

City departments and agencies are also instructed to provide easily accessible information regarding Chicago residents’ rights when encountering immigration enforcement activities near schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, places of worship, and other sensitive locations.

The first-term mayor said he’s received “highly credible reports” that federal agents would arrive in the city in a matter of days. However, he did not say exactly when agents will arrive or how that may look.

“Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time,” Johnson said. “We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some sort type of militarized activity by the federal government.”  

Johnson mentioned that Chicago police officers will be in their uniforms and refrain from wearing masks. They will also not collaborate with federal agents.

In response to Johnson’s executive order, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer.”

“They should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser, who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington, D.C.,” Jackson said, in part.

Earlier this month, Mr. Trump deployed members of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and ordered the federal government to take control of the D.C. police as part of a push to crack down on crime, despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years. He argued that the numbers are “phony.”

“We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is,” the president said at the time.

In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the possibility of sending federal agents to the city an “invasion,” arguing President Trump has “other aims” aside from cracking down on crime.

There are also concerns from officials and Chicagoans that operations in the city could look similar to what occurred in Los Angeles during the spring, which included armored trucks and armed federal agents as they carried out immigration arrests.

It sparked days of protests and eventually the deployment of the National Guard by the federal government over the protests of state and local leaders in California. 

Johnson mentioned that he’s been in communication with the mayor in L.A. on the handling of federal agents.

“The time for action is now,” he said.

What can parabolic flights teach scientists and engineers about electrolyzers and how the latter can help advance human missions to the Moon and Mars? This is the goal of a recent grant awarded to the Mars Atmospheric Reactor for Synthesis of Consumables (MARS-C) project, which is sponsored by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The $500,000 award for this research is part of NASA’s TechLeap Prize program with the goal of testing experimental electrolyzer technology that can be used for future missions.

Parabolic flights are frequently used by NASA, research agencies, and academic institutions to simulate short-term microgravity for astronauts and scientific experiments. The simulations are conducted when the aircraft performs a bell-shaped curve by flying upward, then straight, then pitching downward, resulting in approximately 20 seconds of weightlessness for all passengers and experiments. It is estimated that each mission conducts between 15-20 parabolas, enabling consistent data and personal experience in weightlessness. The purpose of parabolic flights is to conduct Earth-based research that can’t be conducted in outer space or could serve as a precursor to a space-based experiment, as this study hopes to demonstrate.

“Humans have an intrinsic drive to push the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Kevin Supak, who is a Program Manager at the SwRI San Antonio office and project co-lead. “Exploring space catalyzes technological advancements that have far-reaching benefits in our daily lives—often unanticipated innovations arise as a direct result of overcoming the unique challenges of space exploration. Establishing permanent presences on other planetary bodies could pave the way for unprecedented scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs.”

This research comes after similar work conducted in 2024 by Subak and SwRI in collaboration with Texas A&M University using parabolic flights to test boiling liquids under reduced gravity environments. Also, like this most recent work, the 2024 research aimed to explore how liquids boiled on different planetary surfaces, especially with the Moon and Mars exhibiting one-sixth and one-third the gravity of Earth, respectively. One aspect of that study was to evaluate the rate and amount of boiling that occurred on different surfaces, including stainless steel and plastic.

As its name implies, electrolyzers use electric currents to separate liquid water into their molecular components of hydrogen and oxygen using a process called electrolysis. On Earth, electrolyzers are used for a myriad of industrial and commercial applications, including vehicle fuel, renewable energy, and fertilizer production. For space applications, electrolyzers are currently used on the International Space Station (ISS) to provide the rotating crew with breathable oxygen while venting the hydrogen into space.

Like the ISS, future crews on the Moon and Mars will require the appropriate infrastructure for producing breathable oxygen and learning how to use electrolyzers in those reduced gravity environments could prove valuable, as the ISS’ zero-gravity environment has demonstrated their efficiency and reliability. Also like the ISS, having an electrolyzer on the Moon or Mars would negate the need for oxygen resupplies from Earth. Additionally, while the ISS vents unused hydrogen into space, astronauts on the Moon and Mars could use this hydrogen for fuel on return trips back to Earth, also resulting in negating fuel resupplies from Earth.

“In a partial gravity environment, like the Moon or Mars, a reduced buoyancy effect on gas bubbles in an electrolyzer poses challenges that aren’t present on Earth,” said Supak. “We lack an understanding about chemical processes that leverage bubble nucleation in low gravity, which is the gap we aim to fill.”

How will electrolyzers contribute to future missions to the Moon and Mars in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!