A federal judge blocked Trump from sending the National Guard to Oregon — again. Here’s what we know
By Kelly McCleary, Josh Campbell, Danya Gainor, Hanna Park, CNN
(CNN) — For the second time in two days, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Oregon delivered a blow to the president’s effort to send National Guard troops into Portland, temporarily blocking the deployment of National Guard members from anywhere in the US to the city.
The late Sunday ruling expanded on a more narrow Saturday ruling that prevented the administration from sending Oregon National Guard troops to the state’s largest city, which President Donald Trump has said is necessary to quell protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility – a claim strongly disputed by local and state officials.
The hastily scheduled Sunday hearing came after officials in both Oregon and California objected in court to Trump reassigning federalized guard troops in Los Angeles to Portland in an apparent effort to get around the judge’s Saturday order.
“There is no rebellion in Portland,” both states said in a motion asking for the expanded order. “There are no laws that defendants are unable to execute with regular forces in Portland.”
Portland is one of several Democratic-led cities where the Trump administration has called for the deployment of federal troops in the name of protecting federal immigration personnel and property amid Trump’s sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Here’s what we know:
Judge pointedly questioned Trump administration attorney
During Sunday’s hearing, which lasted less than 30 minutes, US District Judge Karin Immergut pressed and occasionally interrupted the Justice Department’s lawyer, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton, expressing frustration over what she characterized as an apparent attempt to sidestep her Saturday order.
“Mr. Hamilton, you are an officer of the court. Aren’t the defendants simply circumventing my order?” Immergut said.
The judge noted the Saturday order blocking Oregon National Guard troops from being sent to Portland relied on her finding that the president appeared to have “exceeded his constitutional authority” by federalizing the troops because protests in Portland “did not pose a ‘danger of rebellion.’” Conditions in Portland had not changed when the Trump administration moved to mobilize members of the California National Guard to the city instead, Immergut said.
During Sunday’s hearing, attorneys for the plaintiffs also pointed to a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling up to 400 Texas National Guard troops into service in Illinois, Oregon and other US cities. The attorneys argued any temporary restraining order blocking National Guard troops from California should also include troops from all 50 states and Washington, DC, which the judge agreed with.
What the judge’s ruling says
In granting the second temporary restraining order Sunday, Immergut blocked the Trump administration “from deploying federalized members of the National Guard in Oregon.”
She also denied a Justice Department request to stay, or pause implementation of, the ruling.
The temporary restraining order is in effect until October 19, and a hearing will be scheduled for October 17 to decide whether it should be extended for another two weeks.
Even as the deployment was being debated in court, the increasingly contentious protests and counterprotests outside of the South Portland ICE facility continued Sunday night.
Two people were arrested by the Portland Police Bureau overnight, the department said, bringing its total arrest count outside the building to 36 since nightly protests began in June. That figure does not include arrests made by federal law enforcement agents.
Ruling is both celebrated and slammed
About 100 California National Guardsmen arrived in Oregon early Sunday morning, and that deployment was expected to double by the end of the day before the judge issued her order, according to a sworn statement from Brigadier General Alan Gronewold, the leader of the Oregon National Guard.
“President Trump’s actions are an effort to occupy and incite cities and states that don’t share his politics, and I believe that we should expect him to continue to push the limits of his authority,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement late Sunday night. “The President can expect Oregon to stand up to him at every turn.”
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield praised the Sunday ruling by Immergut, writing in a post on social media: “The president can’t keep playing whack-a-mole with different states’ Guard units to get around court orders and the rule of law.” In a video response, he added, “We do expect the federal government to attempt to appeal this ruling.”
“We just won in court – again,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X referencing the Sunday ruling. “Trump’s abuse of power won’t stand.”
Before Sunday’s ruling, Newsom vowed to sue over the deployment of California troops in Portland. “This isn’t about public safety, it’s about power. The commander-in-chief is using the U.S. military as a political weapon against American citizens,” the governor said in a statement.
Meanwhile, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller issued a scathing critique of Sunday’s ruling, calling it “one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen.”
“There is no legal distinction between a state volunteering guardsmen to guard the border and volunteering guardsmen to guard a federal immigration facility,” Miller said. “Either we have a federal government, a supremacy clause, and a nation, or we don’t.”
CNN has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
Chicago and other cities targeted by Trump
The other city in the administration’s crosshairs over the weekend was Chicago, where Trump authorized 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to “protect federal officers and assets” against “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness,” over the objections of city and state leaders.
It’s a strategy he first deployed to quell anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles in June — the first time a president had federalized National Guard troops against the wishes of a state’s governor in over half a century.
“They want mayhem on the ground,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “They want to create the war zone so that they can send in even more troops,” he said, referencing last week’s massive ICE raid at a Chicago apartment complex that shattered windows and detained dozens of people overnight.
Later Sunday, after learning of the plan to send Texas National Guard members to multiple states, including Illinois, Pritzker said in a statement, “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
“The brave men and women who serve in our national guards must not be used as political props,” Pritzker added.
The ramping up of pressure in Portland and Chicago comes as the Trump administration touts the effectiveness of a federal task force deployed in Memphis to support local law enforcement.
“273 arrests have been made in just under a week and 73 illegal guns seized,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X Sunday.
While the task force is composed of federal law enforcement officers, the National Guard hasn’t yet been officially “stood up” in the city and isn’t expected to be up and running for “another couple of weeks or so,” Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis said during a community meeting Thursday.
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CNN’s Andy Rose, Chris Boyette, Lauren Mascarenhas and Amanda Musa contributed to this report.
