Judge weighs halting Trump’s National Guard deployment in Oregon as White House promises ‘surge’ in federal presence

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge is weighing Friday whether to grant a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops into Oregon as Trump officials say a “surge” of federal resources is headed to Portland.

Oregon and Portland officials jointly sued the administration this week after Trump announced he would send the National Guard to protect “war-ravaged” Portland. The state says the order is illegal and has called the president’s portrayal of the city “wildly hyperbolic.”

Trump and his administration have cited weekslong demonstrations outside the Portland ICE facility, framing them as “violent riots” tied to “Antifa domestic terrorists.” Local officials have disputed this characterization, claiming in the lawsuit that protests were small until the president’s National Guard announcement brought renewed attention to them.

US District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump nominee, presided over Friday’s hearing in Oregon. She is expected to issue a decision later Friday or Saturday.

About 200 Oregon National Guard soldiers have been mobilized as part of the operation, according to the Oregon Military Department. They will receive training before arriving at the ICE facility, military officials said Friday.

Demonstrations this week grew increasingly tense at ICE facilities in Portland and near Chicago, resulting in arrests at both sites. Conservative influencer Nick Sortor was arrested late Thursday in Portland, along with two others, on suspicion of disorderly conduct for what police said was a physical fight. He was released hours later without bond.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday she has requested assistance from the Department of Defense to respond to the demonstrations.

“We’re sending in the Department of War at the request that I made to Secretary Hegseth. They’re going to be rolling in here within the next 24 hours. They’ll be coming to Chicago too,” Noem said while speaking with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.

Resources from several other agencies, including ICE and the FBI, will descend on Portland “immediately,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

As of Friday, National Guard units were still completing training and must finish preparations before arriving in Portland, a US Northern Command spokesperson told CNN. They were not able to say when training would be complete.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson have fiercely contested this characterization of the protests, which they say have been predominantly peaceful.

“I cannot express the sadness and disappointment I feel when I hear the leader of our country call for the militarization of a situation that does not exist, with murky, unknown, and potentially deadly rules, and no clear definition of success or failure,” Wilson wrote in a TIME opinion editorial.

Meantime, the Trump administration is also reviewing possible federal aid cuts to Portland, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.

“We will not fund states that allow anarchy,” Leavitt said during a press briefing.

Trump’s maneuver in Portland follows similar efforts in Washington, DC, Los Angeles and Memphis – an effort met with impassioned pushback from Democratic leaders nationwide who argue the moves are politically motivated and lack justification.

Last month, a federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it deployed thousands of federalized National Guard soldiers and hundreds of Marines to suppress protests against ICE actions in Los Angeles. The decision barred troops from carrying out law enforcement in the state, but the White House has appealed the decision.

Protecting ICE sites is pretext, source tells CNN

Oregon state attorneys argued Friday that the use of Oregon’s National Guard for civilian law enforcement does not fall within the narrow circumstances – including “rebellion” or invasion by a foreign nation – under which the president has the power to call state troops into federal action.

Federal law says orders for this type of action should be made through state governors. Gov. Kotek has opposed the deployment, calling it an unlawful act that would leave taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars in deployment costs.

The Trump administration has said its goal is to safeguard US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities from demonstrators.

But the move is part of Trump’s wider plan to use the military to intensify his national crime crackdown, a person familiar with White House strategy told CNN. The protection of ICE facilities provides the administration with a good pretext for the deployment, the source said.

National Guard soldiers are not yet on the ground at the Portland ICE facility, the Justice Department attorney said in court Friday.

Before deploying into Portland, soldiers will undergo “refresher training” on handling civil disturbances, crowd control, de-escalation techniques and use of force, the US Northern Command spokesperson said.

There could be a “partial deployment” to Portland if some of the troops finish training within 24 hours – Noem’s timeline for deployment, a Northern Command spokesperson said Saturday evening.

Federal and local officials offer differing realities

City leaders have expressed concern the presence of the National Guard could whip up more fervent protests and stoke new unrest, similar to scenes that played out in Los Angeles over the summer and across major American cities during the summer of unrest in 2020.

The scene today is beginning to echo that of 2020, in which federal and local officials offered wildly different images of the reality on the ground.

“The president has sent agents here to create chaos and riots here in Portland, to induce a reaction. To induce protests. To induce conflicts,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a news conference after Trump’s late September announcement. “His goal is to make Portland look as he was describing it as … Our job is to say, ‘We are not going to take the bait.’”

In court Friday, Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General Brian Simmonds Marshall noted the arrival of federal forces to Portland in 2020 appeared to inflame tensions.

The state argued incidents that arose from the ICE facility protests in recent months have been handled by local law enforcement and have not been severe enough to be considered a riot or rebellion.

But the Justice Department pushed back, with US Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton saying “vicious and cruel radicals have laid siege on the Portland ICE facility.”

Hamilton accused demonstrators of blocking the entrance to the ICE facility, following ICE agents home and throwing incendiary devices, rocks and bricks at law enforcement. The facility closed for three weeks over the summer “because of the violence,” he said.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for more details on the facility closure.

“We ultimately have a perception versus reality problem,” said Caroline Turco, an attorney for the city of Portland. “The president’s perception is it’s World War II out here. The reality is, it’s a beautiful city and a sophisticated police force that can handle the situation.”

The initial judge in the case, US District Judge Michael Simon, recused himself Thursday after the Justice Department expressed concerns over comments critical of troop deployment made by his wife, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Andy Rose and Jason Kravarik contributed to this report.