Effort to disrupt Trump’s plan to militarize the Oregon National Guard gets its day in court Friday.
Oral argument was held Friday morning in a case intended to stop President Donald Trump from a military occupation of Portland, which could begin any day.
Judge Karin Immergut adjourned the hearing around noon, saying she expects to soon reach a decision in the lawsuit filed by Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield and joined by local leaders including Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez.
The request for a temporary restraining order cites the Constitutional principle of civilian control of the military, the granting of police power to the states, and the granting of power to recall civilian militias to Congress and not the president.
“Defendants have trampled on these principles by federalizing members of the Oregon National Guard for deployment in Portland, Oregon, to participate in civilian law enforcement,” the lawsuit states.
In its response, the federal government painted the situation at the ICE facility in a dark light, saying ICE officers had been threatened with death on social media.
“For the last 120 days, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) field office in Portland has been the target of actual and threatened violence,” reads the response. “Agitators have assaulted federal law enforcement officers with rocks, bricks, pepper spray and incendiary devices. They have damaged federal property, including by breaking office windows, security cameras, and card readers permitting entry to the building. They have spray-painted violent threats, blockaded the building’s vehicle entrance, and followed vehicles leaving the facility.”
Over the weekend, Trump declared plans to deploy federal forces to “war ravaged Portland,” a measure he’s attempted this year in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Pete Hegseth, secretary of the Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) issued a memo Sept. 28 calling for 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to mobilize for a 60-day deployment in Portland.
By midweek, the mission’s status remained murky, Willamette Week reported. The Pentagon has said members of the Oregon National Guard are “reporting for duty, conducting training, and preparing to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. government personnel, who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property in Oregon.”
The Oregon Military Department estimates the deployment will cost approximately $10 million, WW reported.
Trump has increasingly used Portland as a liberal foil. Last week, he called out the Rose City as a city in despair, the third time he’s referenced Portland in a week, Politico reported.
He frequently refers to the days of 2020-21 when protesters clashed with law enforcement, including hundreds of federal officers with the Department of Homeland Security, on a nightly basis following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. He’s declared the ICE facility on South Macadam Drive as “under siege by Antifa, and other terrorists.”
“Take a look at Portland some time,” Trump said. “These are crazy people, and they’re trying to burn down buildings.”
In an editorial in Time magazine, Wilson notes the city has been working to reform its police force and has experienced success cutting crime, noting homicides were cut in half in a recent one-year period.
“I cannot express the sadness and disappointment I feel when I hear the leader of our country call for the militarization of a situation that does not exist,” Wilson wrote. “There is no military strength without moral strength, no good outcome when summoning tempers alongside uncertainty and rifles, and no margin for error in what may come next.”
On Wednesday, Oregon’s U.S. attorney sued several Portland-area counties to hand over information about people in the country illegally convicted of serious crimes, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. Authorities with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
Rayfield’s office has been aggressive in combating Trump, filing or joining at least 38 lawsuits to overturn actions by the administration.
Elsewhere, leaders of the World Naked Bike Ride announced plans for an “emergency” ride this weekend to protest the deployment.
At Portland’s ICE Facility earlier this week, around a dozen people demonstrated outside the nondescript facility in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood. About half were with an aid organization; the remainder there to protest ICE actions.
For most of the year, the facility has been the scene of some form of protest. This has ranged from a handful of people in lawn chairs to protesters physically blocking vehicles from exiting or entering the facility. The facility is a processing facility where immigrants regularly meet with case workers. In the second Trump term, city leaders have accused ICE of violating its conditional use permit for the facility by regularly detaining people for longer than 12 hours. Many detainees arrive for their scheduled meetings and are taken away in custody and deported.
Sam Perez of the group Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice told Oregon Business pick-ups in the community by masked ICE agents are intended to send a message.
“Those are a bit more theatrical, and they’re meant to have a certain psychological and social effect on the community,” Perez said.
Perez’s group has a city permit to demonstrate outside the facility, where it has maintained a regular presence since July.
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