A federal judge on Saturday reportedly temporarily blocked President Trump’s plan to deploy 200 National Guard members to Portland, Oregon, halting what the administration described as an urgent effort to restore order and protect federal property in the city.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, herself a Trump appointee, granted Oregon and Portland officials’ request for a temporary restraining order, preventing the administration from implementing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s directive to federalize the troops over the state’s objections.
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote in her ruling.
The decision is a setback for the administration, which has sought to strengthen law enforcement in cities where local governments have resisted federal assistance. Immergut denied the Justice Department’s request to pause her order pending appeal. The ruling will remain in effect for 14 days and could be extended. A trial is set for October 29.
The dispute stems from Trump’s late-September order to send National Guard troops to Portland to defend federal facilities, including the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices, which he said were “under siege.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had directed Hegseth to provide protection from “Antifa and other domestic terrorists,” authorizing “Full Force, if necessary.”
Oregon and Portland officials quickly filed suit, arguing that the president’s justification for intervention was not supported by reality. “It’s based largely on a fictional narrative,” said Scott Kennedy, Oregon’s senior assistant attorney general. Caroline Turco, an attorney representing Portland, added that Trump’s depiction of the city was “not the reality on the ground.”
Trump has long singled out Portland as a symbol of what he calls the “lawless far left,” pointing to riots that followed the 2020 George Floyd protests and years of political unrest in the city. Administration lawyers said those conditions justified federal intervention, arguing that the president has broad authority to federalize National Guard forces when domestic security is threatened.
Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton defended the move, saying “vicious and cruel radicals” had “laid siege” to Portland’s ICE facility, forcing the Department of Homeland Security to close it for three weeks during the summer.
But Immergut was unconvinced. While acknowledging that the president is “certainly entitled” to substantial deference, she ruled that deference “does not mean ignoring the facts on the ground.” “The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” she wrote.
The Portland order is one of several legal challenges confronting the administration’s use of the National Guard. In California, a federal judge ruled that Trump had illegally federalized the state’s Guard during deployments to Los Angeles, directing him to return control to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Justice Department has appealed, and those orders are currently paused.
Meanwhile, a separate case in Washington, D.C., is testing whether the president can assume command of the city’s Guard, while Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Saturday that he expects Trump to federalize his state’s Guard “imminently.”
The rulings have fueled a broader debate about the limits of presidential authority and the extent to which states can reject federal involvement. For Trump and his allies, the issue is one of restoring order where local leaders have, in their view, failed to act. For opponents, it is a test of constitutional boundaries and state sovereignty.
As the legal battles unfold, the administration has shown no sign of backing down. “The President is acting within his authority to protect Americans and federal property,” a senior official said Friday. “What’s lawless is letting cities burn while politicians argue.”
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