A federal judge in Portland, Ore. temporarily blocked President Trump from federalizing 200 members of the state's National Guard.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut ruled that the government didn't meet the threshold for declaring recent ongoing protests outside an ICE facility in Portland a rebellion. She noted in her ruling that the Portland Police Bureau's 812 officers are trained in crowd management and First Amendment law. She also noted their mutual aid agreements with neighboring law enforcement agencies, as well as with the Oregon State Police and federal law enforcement, signaling that they had protests well in hand.
"If additional resources beyond all of these are critically needed, PPB may request that Oregon's Governor provide National Guard resources for a locally declared emergency," she wrote.
Since July, the judge's ruling said, the protests generally were limited to fewer than 30 people and were "largely sedate."
The ruling stated the Trump administration "presented evidence of sporadic violence against federal officers and property damage to a federal building." Immergut wrote that the government has not, however, offered any evidence demonstrating that those violent incidents were part of an organized attempt "to overthrow the government as a whole."
Immergut was appointed by President Trump in 2019.
A broader lawsuit filed Sept. 28 by the city and state asking the courts to declare Trump's deployment unlawful will move forward separately on a slower track.
The judge's decision in Portland comes as the administration deploys the National Guard to a number of American cities. Trump has sent troops to Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and will soon send them to Memphis, Tennessee with the state's approval.
He's threatened to send them to Chicago, despite objections from city and state leaders there. Louisiana's Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, meanwhile, has requested troops to help with "high crime rates" in cities like New Orleans.
President Trump has said the deployments are needed to protect ICE agents as they carry out his mass deportation operations, as well as to reduce street crime. That's even though crime in some of the cities mentioned has been going down – including in Portland. The deployment to California was the first time in 60 years – since they were sent to protect civil rights activists in Alabama -- that a president deployed the National Guard over the objections of a state's governor.
Trump turned to Portland last week
President Trump announced on Sept. 27 his plan to send troops to "war ravaged Portland." In his social media post, the president said he was "authorizing Full Force, if necessary" to deal with "domestic terrorists." Trump did not specify what he meant by "Full Force."
In court documents, the Trump administration argued it was necessary to federalize the National Guard to protect federal personnel at an ICE facility in Portland that has "experienced significant unrest targeting both the facility itself and those who work in it."
State and local officials reject the idea that the situation on the ground requires the National Guard – saying protests outside the ICE facility have been small with no arrests by Portland Police in months until Trump's decision to federalize Oregon's Guard.
By day, legal observers, clergy and leaders from other religious and spiritual denominations stand outside the building, prepared to assist people showing up for required "check-ins" with ICE officials. By night, a small group of protesters – sometimes a dozen or fewer – have demonstrated outside the building.
Typically, says Portland's Police Chief Bob Day, they have largely been nonviolent and contained.
"The city of Portland is 145 square miles. And this is one city block," Day told reporters Monday. "And even the events that are happening down there do not rise to the level of attention that they are receiving."
Local officials say the protests had already dwindled
The protests are much smaller than the scores of people who for months in 2020 gathered at the federal courthouse in downtown Portland following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
On September 28, the State of Oregon and City of Portland sued to block the Trump administration from deploying troops to the state's largest city.
"In furtherance of a nationwide campaign to incorporate the military into civilian law enforcement—while also seeking to punish select, politically disfavored jurisdictions—they are preparing to deploy troops in Portland, Oregon," attorneys for the city and state wrote in their motion for a restraining order filed Monday. "The facts do not remotely justify this overreach."
In the same document, they said the Portland Police Bureau made 25 arrests at the ICE facility between June 11 and June 19 of this year, but hadn't had cause to make any more until administration announced they were deploying the National Guard. After the President's announcement Saturday, two more people were arrested Sunday. Cammilla Wamsley, a regional ICE supervisor, said in a sworn statement that federal law enforcement made more than 20 arrests over roughly three weeks this summer, separate from arrests by local police.
"On any given weekend," attorneys for the city and state wrote, "the nightlife in Portland's entertainment district has required PPB to dedicate greater resources than the small protests outside the ICE facility."
Trump lawyers maintain federal agents are under threat
Lawyers for the administration countered in their own court documents that the deployment was justified because protests in Portland required the facility to close for about three weeks in June and July. They say protesters blocked the entrance, spray painted threats and doxed ICE agents online.
"Agitators have assaulted federal law enforcement officers with rocks, bricks, pepper spray and incendiary devices. They have damaged federal property, including by breaking office windows, security cameras, and card readers permitting entry to the building," they said.
On Friday, the administration announced it was investigating how Portland police have handled anti-ICE protests.
Records provided to the court by the city of Portland show throughout September before Trump made his announcement, protests rarely drew more than a few dozen people. The records show police were in regular communication with federal officers at the Portland ICE facility.
There were nights with incidents, such as Sept 20 when Portland Police noted that a Federal Protective Service officer called them "throughout the night with info about black blockers assaulting people." "Black bloc" groups wear black clothing and face coverings.
But the records show the majority of nights were calm, like the night before Trump's Sept. 27 announcement to send in the National Guard, when Portland police observed 8-15 people at any given time: "Mostly sitting in lawn chairs and walking around." Portland Police wrote, "Energy was low, minimal activity."
Courts have been deliberating over the National Guard in California
This is not the first time that the courts have weighed in on Trump's deployment of the National Guard over the objections of local officials. In June, Trump sent 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to confront protests against ICE operations. A federal judge ruled that the situation there did not constitute a level of interference with ICE or a "rebellion" against federal authority to justify sending in the troops.
But an appeals court overruled that finding, citing instances where ICE agents were "pinned down" and had "concrete chunks" and "bottles of liquid" thrown at them. Oregon officials tried to draw a distinction there.
"Those facts bear no resemblance to the recent ICE facility protests in Portland," attorneys representing Portland and Oregon argued when they asked the court to block the deployment. "If the relatively small, contained, and largely sedated protests near Portland's ICE facility in recent weeks can justify military intervention, then the President's authority to federalize a state's National Guard … would be virtually unlimited."
On Sept. 2, a California judge ruled that the troops in Los Angeles violated long-standing law against military forces performing civilian law enforcement by assisting ICE agents with traffic control and cordons for their operations. That ruling is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
NPR's Larry Kaplow contributed to this story.
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