General Discussion

A federal judge has, for the second time in two days, blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Oregon, ruling that the administration appeared to defy her Saturday order that Trump lacked a legal basis for sending the military into Portland.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut said Sunday that the administration’s effort to circumvent her original order — in part by deploying Guard troops from California and Texas — was “in direct contravention” of her earlier decision, which prohibited Trump from federalizing 200 members of Oregon’s National Guard.

Though Trump had claimed the military was needed to combat daily violence against federal immigration officials, Immergut, a Trump appointee, concluded that Trump’s assessment was “untethered to facts” and failed to satisfy the legal basis to federalize the state’s National Guard troops.

Within hours of her ruling, however, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of members of California’s National Guard to deploy to Portland and reached an agreement with Texas to send hundreds of that state’s National Guard troops to Chicago, Portland and other areas of the country.

Almost 200 California Guard troops arrived or were expected in Portland on Sunday, according to Alan Gronewold, the commander of Oregon’s National Guard. California Guard officials were told 300 of their personnel were being sent to Portland, although a Justice Department attorney said only 200 of those troops were dispatched to Oregon and the remainder would stay in California.