A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to federalize and deploy Oregon National Guard in Portland.
The American district judge Karin Immrict issued a temporary restriction order on Saturday, except for the deployment of the troops for at least 14 days.
Trump took social networks last month to declare that he was sending National Guard troops to “Portland devastated by war”, citing the need to protect immigration facilities there.
Portland, Oregon – October 4: federal agents, including members of the National Security Department, the Border Patrol and the Police, try to keep the protesters back to the outskirts of an Immigration and Customs Installation of the USA. The installation has become a focal point of night protests against the Trump administration and its announcement that it will send Portland National Guard troops.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
But the judge said that Trump’s determination about the alleged chaos in Portland was “simply without binding the facts,” and said he probably exceeded his authority under the Constitution.
The judge also warned that the actions of the Trump administration run the risk of blurring the line between the civil and military government.
“This country has a long and fundamental resistance tradition to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion in civil affairs,” “ Immerut wrote. “This historical tradition is reduced to a simple proposal: this is a nation of constitutional law, not of martial law. The defendants have made a variety of arguments that, if accepted, run the risk of blurring the line between the civil and military federal power, to the detriment of this nation.”
Despite Trump’s claims, Immerut said that protests in Portland have not been “significantly violent or disruptive” and that they are insufficient to federalize the National Guard.
Customs agents and the border patrol are outside an immigration and customs control center in the United States during a protest on Saturday, October 4, 2025 in Portland, Oreg.
Jenny Kane/AP
While the president generally has the right to “a great level of deference,” he said that “it is not equivalent to ignoring the facts in the field.”
She said that Trump’s own statements on the deployment of federalized national guards “more support that her determination was not” conceived in good faith. “
Immergut concluded that Trump’s attempt exceeds his authority under federal law and violates the tenth amendment, which violates the state of Oregon’s sovereignty.
“In a nutshell, the problems at stake in this case are important, and the consequences of the decision of this court are of great reach. As soon as the Federalized National Guard unfolds in Portland, the state of Oregon will suffer an injury in its sovereignty,” he wrote.
“This case implies the intersection of three of the most fundamental principles in our constitutional democracy,” the judge wrote, describing them as the relationship between the federal government and the states; the relationship between the United States armed forces and the application of domestic law; and the role of courts.
“If we chose to follow what the Constitution demands regarding these three relations goes to the heart of what it means to live under the rule of law in the United States,” Immingut wrote.
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
