Oregon leaders fight Trump plan to deploy National Guard in Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — Oregon leaders are fighting back after President Donald Trump announced plans to federalize 200 state National Guard members for deployment in the Portland metro area.

“As regional leaders, we commit to pursuing all legal and legislative options to counter this unprecedented, unnecessary, and unwanted effort to utilize militarized forces in a manner that could violate the constitutional rights of our community,” wrote 17 Oregon mayors in a joint letter issued Monday. The mayors represent some of the state’s largest cities, including Portland, Eugene and Bend, as well as many of the metro suburbs.

On Saturday, Trump announced his intent to “provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland” and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, including that he was authorizing “full force, if necessary.”

On Sunday morning, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek received a memo from the U.S. Department of Defense authorizing 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to perform federal functions for 60 days to protect federal property where protests are “occurring or likely to occur.”

The state and Portland sued Trump — as well as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the department heads — on Sunday, accusing the federal government of violating the 10th Amendment guarantee that police power remains with states rather than the federal government based on a “baseless, wildly hyperbolic pretext.” It also accused Trump of violating the Posse Comitatus Act — an 1878 law that bars federal troops from acting as domestic law enforcement unless directly authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

“By singling out a particular disfavored jurisdiction for political retribution, these actions also eviscerate the constitutional principle that the states’ sovereignty should be treated equally,” the state argued in the complaint.

Portland’s ICE facility has been the site of protests over the past several months, which the state described as small in recent weeks and mild enough to have avoided any arrests for months — though two people were arrested at the site over the weekend. In the motion for a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration from deploying military troops filed Monday, the state argued the “heavy-handed deployment threatens to escalate tensions and stoke new unrest.”

The White House defended Trump’s actions as an exercise of his authority.

“President Trump is using his lawful authority to direct the National Guard to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following months of violent riots where officers have been assaulted and doxxed by left-wing rioters,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “The president’s lawful actions will make Portland safer.”

The same ICE facility Trump seeks to protect has faced recent enforcement actions from the city itself, as Portland recently announced plans to serve the ICE facility with a notice of land use violation. It accused the facility of violating land use rules 25 times in the past 10 months by keeping people detained past the 12-hour limit.

As a sanctuary state, Oregon law bars state and local government agencies from using their resources to aid federal immigration enforcement. The state and city accuse Trump of deploying federal troops in Portland in retaliation for those policies.

“Sending in 200 National Guard troops to guard a single building is not normal,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement. “What we’re seeing is not about public safety, it’s about the president flexing political muscle under the guise of law and order, chasing a media hit at the expense of our community.”

In the joint letter, the Oregon mayors stated there is no local role for militarized immigration enforcement.

“We will use all legal tools at our disposal to deny our jurisdictions’ personnel, equipment, facilities, and resources from any participation or support of militarized federal actions that target the civil rights of our community, including that of assembly, free expression, or protest unless directly required by local, state, or federal law,” the mayors wrote.

Lacey Beaty, mayor of the Portland suburb Beaverton, decried Trump’s characterization of the area and called for the federal government to leave community regulation in the hands of local leaders.

“As someone who served in combat in Iraq, I know what a war zone looks like. Portland is not one,” Beaty said in a statement. “Our communities need leaders who show up, listen, and bring residents together to solve real problems — not distant federal officials who treat cities like enemy territory and drive us further apart.”