by Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
September 29, 2025
The Oregon Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to temporarily block President Donald Trump from federalizing and deploying Oregon National Guard troops to protect federal buildings in Portland.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon on Monday set a hearing for the temporary restraining order request for Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. If granted, it would immediately halt plans Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced over the weekend to deploy 200 Oregon National Guard troops to Portland for 60 days.
According to a memo Hegseth sent to Gov. Tina Kotek on Sunday, the troops would be under the orders of a joint federal military command based in Colorado. Kotek, head of the Oregon National Guard, has said repeatedly she would not deploy state troops.
In declarations to the court made Monday afternoon, officials from the Portland Police Bureau and Oregon State Police said federal officers would create more trouble than they would prevent.
Craig Dobson, assistant chief of operations for the bureau, wrote that crime is down in the city — half as many murders have occurred since the same time last year, injury shootings are down more than 30% and murders, rapes, burglaries and robberies are all declining.
“Portland is not under siege, war-ravaged, or otherwise a particularly violent or unruly major city. There is no law-enforcement or public-order need for a federal deployment to Portland,” Dobson wrote.
In a Sunday memo sent to Gov. Tina Kotek Sunday, Hegseth said the troops would be under the orders of a joint federal military command based in Colorado. Kotek, head of the Oregon National Guard, has said repeatedly she would not deploy state troops.
Hegseth’s memo came the day after President Donald Trump declared in a social media post that he would deploy troops to “war ravaged” Portland. Trump did not give Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson or any other local leaders advance notice that he was going to order troops deployed to the city.
State Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed the restraining order motion Monday on behalf of the state and the city of Portland as part of their broader lawsuit filed Sunday against Trump, Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
That suit alleges the federal leaders and their agencies by attempting to send troops to Portland are violating the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees police power within states resides with the states. They also allege the federal government is violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally forbids military members from conducting domestic law enforcement. The state and Portland also allege the city is being singled out for political retaliation.
“The President’s response to federalize 200 National Guard members for 60 days is not about keeping people safe — it’s about chasing headlines at the expense of our community,” Rayfield said in a statement.
Trump in his Truth Social post on Saturday said troops would protect “any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
An ICE processing facility south of downtown Portland has drawn weekly protests of just a couple dozen people in recent months, and they have remained mostly peaceful. The local U.S. attorney has brought charges against 26 people since early June for crimes at the protest site, including arson and resisting arrest. Protests this weekend grew to a couple hundred following Trump’s call for federal reinforcement. The protests stayed mostly peaceful, with Portland Police arresting two men for assault for causing physical injuries. About 200 people showed up to protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland on Sunday, Sept. 28. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Kotek, who said she spoke with Trump on Saturday and exchanged text messages with him Sunday, said she made clear that there is no insurrection or threat to public safety in Oregon.
“I’m dissatisfied that there has been no real conversation with the Trump administration,” Kotek said at a press conference Monday afternoon. “Their desire to call up Oregon National Guard members based on faulty information is highly problematic.”
In an interview with NBC White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor Sunday, Trump said that he had seen videos of Portland with “fires all over the place,” alluding to his decision being based on videos of the summer 2020 protests in downtown Portland.
“I spoke to the governor, she was very nice,” Trump told Alcindor. “But I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different.’”
Kotek said the command has asked for information about state guard members from the Oregon Military Department.
“I just want to remind folks that this is tough for the members of the Oregon National Guard,” she said. “They are our neighbors and friends. They are citizen soldiers who have day jobs. They don’t have a clear mission. We don’t have a clear timeline. That is very disruptive to members and their families.”
Portland City Councilor Mitch Green, an Army Veteran, called on Guard troops to protest any deployment ordered by Trump and Hegseth to Portland in a video Monday and called on military veterans to show up in uniform to protest the Trump administration.
“For those of you still serving, I want to remind you that your oath of service requires you to support the constitution of the U.S. against all enemies both foreign and domestic. That oath does not grant the president a right to your absolute obedience,” he said.
A coalition of more than a dozen Portland-area mayors, as well as the mayors of Eugene and Bend, issued a joint letter Monday saying they would coordinate on monitoring federal law enforcement deployed to the state and enjoin lawsuits as needed against the federal government.
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- 5:18 pmU.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon set a hearing for the temporary restraining order for Friday, Oct. 3 at 10 a.m.
- 12:13 pmU.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon set a scheduling call for the temporary restraining order for Monday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m.
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: [email protected].