Portland, Oregon, won’t be seeing 200 National Guardsmen storming in to tackle anti-ICE protests, thanks to a federal judge’s ruling that’s got the Trump administration hitting the brakes.
Fox News reported that a U.S. District Court issued a temporary restraining order on Saturday, stopping the federalization of Oregon National Guard troops meant to quell violent protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Portland, after the state and city challenged the move as unlawful.
Let’s rewind to June, when President Trump issued a memorandum greenlighting the federal takeover of National Guard troops, pointing to threats against federal employees and property amid heated immigration enforcement protests.
By late summer, Oregon officials claimed the protests—once marked by violence near a Portland ICE facility—had dwindled to small, mostly peaceful gatherings, hardly the “war-ravaged” chaos Trump described.
Fast forward to September 27, when Trump took to Truth Social, announcing he’d ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to deploy troops to protect against what he called “Antifa and other domestic terrorists,” even authorizing “full force” if needed.
Not so fast—Hegseth followed up the next day by federalizing 200 Oregon National Guard members, despite Governor Tina Kotek’s firm stance that no public safety emergency justified such a drastic step.
Oregon and Portland weren’t having it, filing a lawsuit claiming the deployment overstepped the president’s constitutional and statutory powers, a move that’s got conservatives scratching their heads over federal versus state control.
Enter Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee no less, who granted the temporary restraining order on Saturday, ruling that the law limits presidential use of the National Guard to extreme cases like invasion or rebellion—none of which she found in Oregon.
Immergut went further, stating the order violated the 10th Amendment by trampling Oregon’s right to govern its own Guard, a decision that’s a gut punch to federal overreach but a win for state sovereignty.
The judge didn’t stop there—she pointed out that local and federal law enforcement were perfectly capable of keeping order, without turning Portland into a military zone.
Immergut also highlighted the “irreparable harm” Oregon faced from losing control of its Guard to risking public safety by diverting troops trained for state emergencies, a ruling that underscores the dangers of federal heavy-handedness.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut declared.
While her words carry weight, they sidestep the reality of ongoing tensions—tear gas was deployed against protesters near an ICE facility this weekend, and a Department of Homeland Security officer sprayed a demonstrator just days earlier.
The court’s stance that public interest favors restraint over military intrusion is a noble one, but let’s not ignore the violence and arrests still simmering in Portland, even if protests have reportedly shrunk.
This temporary restraining order, set to last 14 days until October 18 unless extended, has denied the government’s plea to pause it, leaving Trump’s team in a bind while tensions linger near ICE facilities.
