A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump has blocked the administration’s order to deploy the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, ruling that the justification for the move was “untethered to facts.”
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, nominated by Trump in 2019, wrote in her opinion that the president’s directive to send troops to Portland risked violating the Constitution. “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” she stated.
The ruling halts Trump’s September 27 directive, which claimed that federal troops were needed to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities from nightly attacks by “Antifa and other domestic terrorists.” In his social media announcement, Trump described Portland as “war-ravaged” and said he was responding to a request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect war-ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack,” Trump said at the time.
Judge Immergut dismissed those claims, finding no evidence that such threats existed. “Whatever the factual basis the President may have for these allegations, nothing in the record suggests that anything of this sort was occurring ‘every night’ outside the Portland ICE building or in the City of Portland in the days or weeks leading up to his September 27 directive,” she wrote.
In her decision, Immergut warned that the administration’s arguments “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.”
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek praised the ruling in a statement, calling it a victory for the rule of law. “The federal court ruled in Oregon’s favor to block a military intervention in Portland. I believe the truth has prevailed. While this ruling is only the first step, it’s a step in the right direction,” she said.
Kotek also urged Trump to respect the decision: “We would hope that President Trump respects the court decision and the rule of law; we would hope that he reverses course. There is no insurrection in Portland, no threat to national security. The only threat we face is to our democracy, and that threat is being led by President Trump.”
The decision marks another setback for Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard in Democrat-controlled cities. Similar rulings have blocked troop deployments to Los Angeles and prompted lawsuits from Washington, D.C., officials who accused the administration of a “hostile takeover” of local law enforcement.