Federal judge extends temporary orders barring Trump administration from deploying National Guard to Portland

By Danya Gainor, CNN

(CNN) — US District Judge Karin Immergut has ruled to extend her temporary restraining orders barring the deployment of the National Guard troops to Portland, keeping President Donald Trump’s federalization efforts in limbo as legal challenges unfold.

The ruling by the Trump-appointed judge blocks the federal troops from deploying to Portland for another 14 days. The orders were originally set to expire this weekend.

By extending the temporary orders, Immergut allowed the court and appeals judges time to fully consider the case as the Trump administration remains blocked from deploying federalized troops. The case is expected to go to trial on October 29.

The extension comes as the federal government challenges the judge’s earlier ruling on deployment in a higher court as it works to crack down on Democratic-led cities it claims are stricken by crime and disorder.

“Regardless of what happens next, Oregon (Department of Justice) will continue to fight to uphold Oregon’s laws and the Constitution,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a social media post Wednesday.

The president has cited protests outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility to justify the callups of troops in the deep blue city.

Leaders in Oregon have emphatically disputed the president’s characterizations of their cities as “war-ravaged” and uncontrollably violent, arguing in court that the situation on the ground in Portland is nowhere as extreme as federal officials portray it to be.

Protests in Oregon’s biggest city over White House immigration policies started in June, with a declared riot and arson arrests in mid-summer. The scene was largely calm until Trump had declared late September he was sending 200 Oregon National Guard troops to the city.

Oregon and Portland officials jointly sued following the announcement, and Immergut granted a temporary order barring the federalization of those Oregon troops.

The federal judge then expanded that ruling a day later to include barring the deployment of any US troops when the Trump administration reassigned federalized guard troops in Los Angeles to Portland in an apparent effort to get around the initial order.

A three-judge panel with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is still weighing whether the Trump administration should be blocked from deploying the Oregon National Guard to respond to ICE protests in Portland. They have yet to release a decision. The panel last week granted an administrative stay that allowed for the federalization of the Oregon National Guard.

If the Ninth Circuit rules against the temporary order on deployment, Immergut said during the hearing Wednesday that she will file an order to end her extension.

As Trump continues efforts to federalize National Guard members across the US for deployment to Democratic-led cities, the administration faces mounting legal pushback from states saying they don’t need — or want — any federal help.

After the state of Illinois and its largest city sued the administration last week, calling plans to move troops from the Illinois and Texas National Guards into Chicago “illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional,” a federal appeals court ruled that the troops in Illinois can remain under federal control but can’t be deployed as the appeals process continues in the ongoing showdown between the Trump administration and the state.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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