- Judge Karin Immergut issued an injunction Sunday blocking President Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland, Oregon.
- She ruled the protests did not qualify as a “rebellion” under federal law.
- The court found the deployment likely violated the 10th Amendment and other statutes.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut granted a preliminary injunction on Sunday, barring President Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, until at least Friday, Nov. 7.
In an opinion filed Sunday, Immergut wrote that Trump’s opposition has standing, and the court is likely to find that deploying the National Guard violated 10 U.S.C. § 12406 and the 10th Amendment, which promises state sovereignty.
Trump ordered the National Guard to Portland, following monthslong protests outside of the city’s ICE facility.
Based on the Portland Police Bureau command staff’s testimony, Immergut wrote, “The protests in Portland at the time of the National Guard callouts are likely not a ‘rebellion,’ and likely do not pose a danger of rebellion.”
She continued, “Defendants have not, however, proffered any evidence demonstrating that those episodes of violence were perpetrated by an organized group engaged in armed hostilities for the purpose of overtaking an instrumentality of government by unlawful or antidemocratic means.”
Immergut compared the ICE facility protests to previous acts of rebellion, including the Whiskey Rebellion and Shays’ Rebellion.
The judge also provided a definition of “rebellion,” which would create precedence for deploying the National Guard. A rebellion is “an organized group engaged in armed hostilities for the purpose of overtaking an instrumentality of government by unlawful or antidemocratic means,” she said.
Immergut added, “The trial testimony produced no credible evidence of any significant damage to the ICE facility in the months before the President’s callout and no credible evidence that ICE was unable to execute immigration laws.”
“Protesters frequently blocked the driveway of the ICE building, but the evidence also showed that federal law enforcement officers were able to clear the driveway,” she wrote.
Where else has Trump deployed the National Guard?
In Washington, D.C.; Memphis, Tennessee; and Los Angeles, California, the National Guard is actively deployed to guard federal property and reenforce policing.
As of late October, Trump had deployed 2,500, 150 and 4,100 troops to each area, respectively.
By mid-September, a little over a month into the deployment to Washington, D.C., homicides were down 60%, and violent crime had decreased by 17%, The Heritage Foundation reported.
In Memphis, federal officers have arrested 1,800 people, found 88 missing children and arrested more than 100 known gang members since Sept. 29, per reports.
Legal decisions over sending troops to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, are still pending. Trump has also suggested sending troops to San Francisco and New York City.