A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump from deploying 200 Oregon National Guard troops to the city of Portland, Oregon, in response to a lawsuit on Saturday, Oct. 4, according to Reuters and CNN.
The ruling came from Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut in Portland, a Republican, as Trump has sought to dispatch the military to cities he describes as lawless over the objections of their Democratic leaders.
Democratic Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s office filed the lawsuit on September 28, a day after Trump said he would send troops to Portland to protect federal immigration facilities from “domestic terrorists.”
In a Sept. 27 post on Truth Social, Trump said he directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” He added he authorized the military to use “Full Force, if necessary.”
Lawyers from the Oregon attorney general’s office had told federal officials that the Portland protests were “small and sedate,” resulting in only 25 arrests in mid-June and no arrests in the three-and-a-half months since June 19.
Oregon’s lawsuit said that Trump announced the troop deployment after Fox News showed video clips from “substantially larger and more turbulent protests” in Portland in 2020.
The stark divide in how the two sides described the situation on the ground in Portland was evident at a court hearing before Immergut on Oct. 3.
Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek said she made it “abundantly clear” in recent conversations with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that the city and state “can manage our own local public safety needs.”
Caroline Turco, an attorney for Portland, said that there had been no violence against ICE officers for months and that recent ICE protests were “sedate” in the week before Trump declared the city to be a war zone, sometimes featuring less than a dozen protesters.
“The president’s perception of what is happening in Portland is not the reality on the ground,” Turco said. “The president’s perception is that it is World War Two out here. The reality is that this is a beautiful city with a sophisticated police force that can handle the situation.”
Portland’s lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to Trump’s deployments of military forces to Democrat-led cities, including Los Angeles and Washington.
Earlier in the day, the Trump administration told Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker of their plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.
Pritzker said he would be defying the suggestion.
“I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people,” he said. “Illinois, we will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution, and defend the rule of law.”
The president deployed 800 National Guard troops to Washington, DC, on Aug. 11, declaring a public safety emergency.
Contributing: Reuters and USA TODAY’s Joey Garrison, Sarah Wire
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge blocks Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard to Portland
