A U.S. district court judge has temporarily barred the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland, Oregon. As of right now, this ruling will be in effect through at least Friday. Former President Trump’s appointee, Karin Immergut, has now finalized that order. This order prohibits federal troops from being sent to the city amid daily protests against the enforcement actions taken around the new permanent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
The order follows a three-day fact-finding hearing. While the commission’s work was underway, Immergut had scrutinized witness statements from police and government representatives regarding the protests. She ultimately found there was “no credible evidence” indicating the protests had gotten out of hand. This discovery preceded the President’s federalization of troops this fall by several weeks.
During these five months, Immergut noted that the overwhelming majority of confrontational incidents happened between protesters and counter-protesters — not with the federal agents. Her assessment characterized the protests as “predominately peaceful, with only isolated and sporadic instances of relatively low-level violence,” further supporting her decision to restrict troop deployment.
As advocates pursued these changes, in September, the city of Portland and the state of Oregon filed suit against the Trump administration. Their goal was to prevent the total deployment of National Guard troops. In an earlier stage of the litigation, Immergut had entered a temporary restraining order prohibiting any deployment of the sort. Despite this, the Trump administration appealed her initial ruling.
In her final order, Immergut acknowledged potential limitations to her authority over the President’s actions, stating she “may lack jurisdiction to enjoin President Trump in the performance of his official duties.” Her latterly injunction goes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It bars them from deploying members of the National Guard to Oregon.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield cheered the ruling in no uncertain terms. He hailed the announcement as “a gigantic win” for the state and its people. The Trump administration is likely to keep up its legal battle as expected by appealing Immergut’s ruling.
Tensions around protests are already high in Portland. This judicial decision represents a notable turning point in the burgeoning discussion between state and federal leaders on addressing civil disorder.