A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard troops to Portland. This ruling came after a Friday hearing over the matter, where federal and local officials gave differing accounts of protests in the city.
U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting, said she is required to give “great deference” to the president on the issue of federalizing troops, though she questioned the United States Justice Department lawyers’ use of a Truth Social post as evidence they are necessary.
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“Really? A social media post is going to count as a presidential determination that you can send the National Guard to cities? That’s really what I should be relying on?” Immergut was quoted by OPB as saying.
Meanwhile, Eric Hamilton, an attorney for the U.S. DOJ, said the city’s “record does show a persistent threat,” and pointed to reports from the Portland Police Bureau about crowds at protests in September being “very energized.”
However, OPB reported, attorneys representing Portland and Oregon used the same documents to show there were smaller protests in the city before Trump announced he wanted to send in the National Guard.
One email used by the plaintiffs said police only saw eight to 15 people at a given time, and they were “Mostly sitting in lawn chairs and walking around.”
“Energy was low, minimal activity,” the email said.
Sworn affidavits by top Portland commanders obtained by Oregon Live said demonstrations at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility were under control, and they made around two dozen arrests since a nightly encampment was erected during the summer.
But Trump administration lawyers used incidents of lights being pointed in federal agents’ eyes and protesters throwing rocks to show that the federal government cannot enforce the law without the National Guard, Axios wrote.
Thursday and Friday protests
Shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday, the Portland Police Bureau gave an update on Friday evening protests at the ICE facility. Officers, at one point, saw neighborhood traffic swerve, and sometimes stopping completely, to avoid demonstrators “encroaching into the street.”
Most people moved to the sidewalk when requested to by police, but two individuals refused. The two men were “also observed engaging in aggressive behavior toward each other in the street, both using sound amplification devices,” police said. They were subsequently arrested and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of disorderly conduct in the second degree.
“PPB was monitoring the protest during the evening and watching for criminal acts. There were individuals who gathered to confront one another and passionately debate their opposing points of view,” the bureau said in a statement. “However, the police presence, targeted arrests, and announcements from the PPB Sound Truck were effective in suppressing any physical fights breaking out.”
A few arrests were also made Thursday after “some protest participants” started fighting, police said. Among those arrested was conservative influencer Nick Sortor, who was charged with disorderly conduct.
The Department of Justice said it is launching an investigation into Sortor’s arrest, with the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, saying the DOJ will “hold Portland accountable for its bad police practices!”
Police Chief Bob Day maintained at a Friday news conference that arrests made were “ based upon probable cause, not based upon individuals.”
“There is no political bias associated with our enforcement,” he said, per The Associated Press, which reported that the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case and plans to make a decision whether to proceed with charges before Sortor is arraigned on Monday.
Local officials push back on Trump’s rhetoric
Trump has called Portland a “war zone” and likened being in the city to “living in hell.” City and state officials, though, said these kinds of remarks heightened tensions.
“In my conversations with President Trump and Secretary Noem, I have been abundantly clear,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said. “Portland and the State of Oregon believe in the rule of law and can manage our own local public safety needs. There is no insurrection. There is no threat to national security. And there is no need for military troops.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson previously said the number of federal troops needed in the city is “zero.”
“Our nation has a long memory for acts of oppression, and the president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it,” Wilson said. “Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers to Portland, instead of a short, expensive, and fruitless show of force.”
Midyear crime data shows that the city’s overall violent crime rate decreased compared to 2024.
Homicides dropped by more than 50% — from 35 to 17. Reported rapes fell from 185 to 163, (a 12% decline) and robberies went down from 525 to 491. Aggravated assaults also went from 1,452 incidents in 2024 to 1,442 in 2025.
