[ad_1]
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A motion for a temporary restraining order was filed on Monday by the Oregon Attorney General against the deployment of federal troops in Portland and claims that the decision is “unlawful” and poses a “substantial risk” to its residents.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on TruthSocial that he planned to bring troops to Portland with the intent to use “full force.” The next day, his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, issued a memorandum calling 200 members of the state’s National Guard into federal service.
In a letter sent to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek by Secretary Hegseth, the Oregon National Guard will perform federal functions for 60 days. These functions include protecting federal property “where protests are occurring or likely to occur.”
In response, Gov. Kotek, AG Rayfield, and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson announced their request for the temporary restraining order that was filed in the District Court of Oregon.
The motion claims that protests at the ICE Facility in South Portland “do not remotely justify this overreach.”
“Those protests have been small in recent weeks — typically involving fewer than 30 people — and the protesters’ activities have not necessitated any arrests for months,” the filing said. “But Defendants’ heavy-handed deployment threatens to escalate tensions and stoke new unrest.”
Rather, the motion claims the deployment of federal troops is part of President Trump’s “preexisting intention to militarize streets of Portland and other ‘sanctuary cities.’”
Portland is a sanctuary city and Oregon is a sanctuary state. As such, law enforcement agencies representing these jurisdictions are not permitted to involve themselves in federal immigration enforcement. Governments across the nation with active sanctuary statuses have become a target for the Trump administration, which has spent several months cracking down on illegal immigration.
However, the motion filed by Rayfield states that the Trump Administration cannot “plausibly maintain that Portland’s violent crime requires a federal troop deployment,” citing that general crime rates are down and the protests at the Portland ICE facility “fall far short of a rebellion.”
“It is also likely to inflame the situation and complicate local law enforcement’s task of maintaining public safety near the ICE building,” according to the filing. “Indeed, history shows that surging federal officials to Portland in response to protests shifts the temperature of those protests up, not down.”
The motion also claims the involvement of federal troops will have a negative impact on nearby small businesses — calling it an “economic chill” that will “directly entail a loss of tax revenues collected by Oregon and Portland.”
“Decreased business activity in Portland, and potentially elsewhere in Oregon, will mean lower income and lower corporate activity subject to state and local taxes,” the motion said.
During the Sunday press conference, Gov. Kotek said this was a “sad day for Oregon, a sad day for the United States.” The governor, who is the commander-in-chief of the Oregon National Guard, is no longer in charge of them since Trump invoked Title 10.
“The president is either purposefully ignoring the reality on the ground in Portland to score political points, or at best, is recklessly relying upon social media gossip,” Rayfield said. “The president’s actions today only serve to further divide us as a nation, as a community, under the guise of caring about public safety, caring about public safety. That means cooperation and partnership with leaders asking us, ‘What do we need in terms of public safety?’”
A copy of the full document is available below:
Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.
[ad_2]
Aimee Plante
Source link