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A judge has extended her order blocking President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, dealing a setback to the White House as it tries to send the military to cities over the objection of their Democratic leaders.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by emails after office hours.
Why It Matters
Trump has deployed federalized National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to tackle what he says is surging crime and he is attempting to do the same in several other Democrat-run cities against the wishes of the local governments.
His efforts have suffered a series of legal blows, including a federal court blocking the administration from federalizing the Illinois National Guard ahead of a planned deployment to Chicago. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, the courts have emerged as one of the main impediments to Trump administration policy.
At the heart of the debate is the extent of the president’s constitutional authority to deploy military forces domestically over the objects of city and state governments.
What To Know
U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut’s decision late on Sunday comes after a three-day hearing that saw arguments over whether the Trump administration had violated the law by federalizing and trying to deploy Oregon and California troops to Portland.
She said she would continue to block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Oregon until 5 p.m. on Friday, November 7, according to a copy of her decision reviewed by Newsweek.
Protests have erupted on the streets of Portland and elsewhere in opposition to the federal government’s immigration enforcement. Trump has referred to the protesters, whose focus in Portland has been the city’s ICE facility, as “agitators, insurrectionists.”
During last week’s trial, the legal team for the city and the states of Oregon and California argued that the situation in Portland has been manageable by local police, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
Lawyers for the Trump administration said demonstrators had broken significant laws, a Justice Department attorney said, and that the president did not have to wait for the gatherings to grow into a full-fledged rebellion.
Immergut said in her ruling: “Based on the trial testimony, this Court finds no credible evidence that during the approximately two months before the President’s federalization order, protests grew out of control or involved more than isolated and sporadic instances of violent conduct that resulted in no serious injuries to federal personnel.”
She said most of the violence appeared to be between protesters and counterprotesters and found no evidence of “significant damage” to the immigration facility at the center of the protests.
What People Are Saying
Karin Immergut, U.S. District Court judge for Oregon, wrote in her ruling: “The violence that did occur during this time period predominately involved violence between protesters and counterprotesters, not violence against federal officers or the ICE facility.”
What Happens Next
Friday’s ruling prevents the Trump administration deploying National Guard personnel to Portland until 5 p.m. on Friday. It remains to be seen whether they will be legally permitted to make such a deployment.
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