A US federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from deploying National Guard troops from Texas and California to Portland, Oregon.
The decision late on Sunday came after the same court denied Trump’s attempt to deploy Oregon’s own National Guard members to Portland.
Portland is the latest Democratic-led city targeted as part of the president’s attempt to address what he says is out-of-control crime, amid protests over his administration’s immigration enforcement.
Trump has also authorised the deployment of National Guard troops from other states to Chicago, Illinois.
The ruling on Sunday from US District Judge Karin Immergut came shortly after the Pentagon confirmed 200 members of the California National Guard had been reassigned to Portland to “support US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties”.
California and Oregon had sought a temporary restraining order against the deployment.
Judge Immergut, who was appointed by Trump, said there was no evidence that recent protests in the city made the presence of federalised National Guard troops necessary.
During an emergency hearing on Sunday, she pressed lawyers from the federal government on how the deployment of troops from other states was not simply a way to circumvent her earlier decision denying the deployment of Oregon’s National Guard.
In that decision, she said the use of the military to quell unrest without Oregon’s consent risked the sovereignty of that state and others, and inflamed tensions in the city of Portland.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, called the ruling on X “one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen – and is yet the latest example of unceasing efforts to nullify the 2024 election by fiat”.
He later told reporters that Trump was considering a “very broad” range of authorities to deploy federal assets despite the court’s intervention. He declined to offer specifics, saying that could enable local authorities to prepare their next motions in court.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Judge Immergut’s decision was “untethered in reality and in the law, and said that Trump was legally within his rights to call up the National Guard “in cases where he deems it appropriate”.
“We’re very confident in the president’s legal authority to do this,” she said. “And we’re very confident we will win on the merits of the law.”
The temporary restraining order will remain in effect until at least 19 October. The Trump administration is expected to quickly appeal against the ruling.
Meanwhile, Illinois state and the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Monday to block a similar planned deployment of troops to the city by the Trump administration.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly for the reason that their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement.
On Monday, Trump said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act to use the military if federal courts stopped his deployment of National Guard troops to US cities.
Speaking in the Oval Office, he said: “We have an insurrection act for a reason. If I had to enact it I would do that.
“If people were being killed and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure I would do that.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said late on Sunday night that Trump was “ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States”.
In a statement, the governor called the proposed deployment “Trump’s invasion”, and said there was “no reason” to send troops into any state without the “knowledge, consent, or co-operation” of local officials.
He told CNN that the authorisation of troops there would incite protests and accused the administration of creating a “warzone” to rationalise the response.
Pritzker also called on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to “immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to co-ordinate”.
In response, Abbott said he “fully authorized” Trump’s decision to call up the Texas National Guard “to ensure safety for federal officials”.
“You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” he wrote on X.
Like Portland, Chicago has also seen protests over increased immigration enforcement.
On Saturday, protests became violent, with immigration authorities saying they opened fire on an armed woman after she and others allegedly rammed their cars into law enforcement vehicles.
The woman’s condition is unclear, but officials said she drove herself to hospital.
Trump has sought to use National Guard troops in a number of US cities to crack down on what he says is out-of-control crime and support immigration enforcement – including in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California.
The National Guard is the primary combat reserve of the Army and Air Force. The state-based military force can be called up by either a state governor or the US president. It is often deployed to provide disaster relief after floods and hurricanes but can also support military operations overseas.
In September, a federal judge in California ruled Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles was illegal because it violated an act that limits the power of the federal government to use military force for domestic matters.
The administration is appealing against that decision.
(With additional reporting from Bernd Debusmann Jr at the White House)
