A federal judge in Oregon on Friday issued a permanent injunction barring the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to downtown Portland in response to protests against the president’s immigration policies.
“This court reaches the necessary conclusion that there was no ‘insurrection or danger of insurrection’ and that the President did not have the ‘capacity to enforce the laws of the United States with regular military forces’ when he ordered federalization and the deployment of the National Guard in Oregon,” U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, who was appointed during President Donald Trump’s first term, wrote in the ruling.
The Trump administration can appeal the ruling if it wishes.
Immergut previously had a temporary restraining order barred from sending the Guard to Oregon, which the Trump administration challenged.
Oregon officials have been embroiled in a complicated legal battle with the administration since late September. At the time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mobilized about 200 troops to the city at the direction of President Trump as protests continued outside immigration detention facilities.
The city and state filed a lawsuit on September 28 to block the deployment of military forces in Portland, arguing that it was unnecessary and illegal.
Mr. Immergut signed a temporary restraining order on Oct. 4 to prevent the administration from deploying the National Guard, and the next day issued a second order blocking the deployment of National Guard troops from other states to downtown Portland.
In his order, he said Trump appeared to be acting with malicious intent by greatly exaggerating claims of violence in the city, including calling the city “war-torn” by “an ICE facility under siege by Antifa” and “crazy people trying to burn down buildings, including federal buildings” every night.
“The president’s determination was simply unrelated to the facts,” Immergut wrote.
The Justice Department immediately filed an appeal, arguing that her decision “unreasonably affects the commander-in-chief’s oversight of military operations, rescinds military direction to officers in the field, and endangers federal personnel and property.”
Lawyers argued that Trump’s “decision was fully justified by the facts on the ground.”
“In the weeks and months preceding the President’s decision, agitators assaulted federal employees in a variety of ways, damaged federal property, made violent spray threats, blocked vehicle entrances to the Portland ICE facility, locked employees in their cars, tailed employees as they attempted to leave the facility, threatened them inside the facility, threatened them at home, posted personal information online, and threatened to kill them on social media,” they said.
The Justice Department argued that federal law enforcement needed the help of the National Guard because “regular military forces cannot enforce the laws of the United States.”
Oregon officials countered that while incidents of violence have occurred on or near the facility, they are small and local and federal law enforcement can continue to respond.
The Justice Department has appealed Immergut’s decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the case is still pending.
The Justice Department is facing a similar challenge in Chicago, where a judge last month issued a temporary restraining order barring the deployment of the National Guard. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted the order temporary effect while the administration’s appeal progresses.
The administration appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court last month.
Contributed by Gary Grumbach.
